December 13 - 19, 2023
Lifetime of volunteering By CORAL COOKSLEY
FOR Beechworth’s Robyn Funston, being a volunteer has been a natural thing to do growing up with her parents and grandparents as shining examples. Robyn recalls her time raising funds for Ronald McDonald House close to 40 years ago when in a community marketing role for McDonald’s in Shepparton. “We used to just buy things that they needed such as kitchen utensils and loads of food,” she said. “We would fill up the back of my car and drive down to Melbourne with cartons of canned food because people, particularly in regional areas, would find out at the last minute their child needed to be at the children’s hospital without food provisions at the other end in those days. “Young people who worked with me at McDonald’s did jobs such as car washes to raise money to buy things like CD players back then for the kids in the Royal Children’s Hospital wards run by paediatric oncology nurse Mary McGowan who was just an angel on Earth. “Fundraising stretched from holding huge fashion parades with international models in the Shepparton Art Gallery to standing on corner of a street with a bucket to baking cakes for a stall. “We would head to Melbourne by car or a mini bus packed to the rafters with items that would be distributed to the kids in the hospital wards.” The dedicated volunteer received a lifetime membership to the children’s hospital as well as becoming a lifetime friend of Ronald McDonald House.
◆ SUPPORTIVE: Passionate volunteer Robyn Funston helps with donation drives for charity Share the Dignity to help those experiencing period poverty caused by homelessness, fleeing domestic violence, or doing it tough. PHOTO: Coral Cooksley
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