BATHURST may have lagged well behind Orange’s efforts in Sunday’s Red Shield Appeal, but that is not about to discourage the city’s new fundraising committee.
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Orange came in second nationally in the annual fundraising tally for the Salvation Army appeal with $58,159.80 raised from the event’s launch, the doorknock and from the community collection points.
Bathurst raised $7608.10, which was less than the $12,000 raised in the city last year.
Each year in Orange the Red Shield Appeal is launched to business and school leaders at a huge luncheon, which organisers say is vital in helping to build support.
The luncheon raises around $20,000 each year for the appeal, and this is before the doorknock has even been held.
Captains from every high school in Orange are invited to the luncheon to help inspire them to encourage their school-mates to take part in the doorknock.
“Ninety per cent of our volunteers are school kids,” Orange Salvos business lunch chair Tony Rodd said.
In addition, the city’s only boarding school sends a busload of its boarders to take part in the doorknock.
The Salvos also try to inspire a little inter-school rivalry in Orange by putting trophies up for grabs to schools that take part.
“Bathurst should flog us [in fundraising] because they’ve got three boarding schools, [and] the university,” Mr Rodd said.
“There’s more people to access.
“School kids are the secret to our success.”
Orange Salvos captain David Grounds said the city’s long-running doorknock committee is another factor that adds to the high fundraising totals.
“When you have success, it builds more success,” he said.
Despite this, Bathurst’s new Salvos captain, Lieutenant Penny Williams, said she feels like the city has a “clean slate” from which to build a new fundraising and community involvement strategy.
During the next 12 months she plans to work with Bathurst’s new doorknock committee to come up with initiatives to get the community involved.
“Maybe we’ll look at having a launch and getting business involved,” she said.
As recently as five years ago, similar amounts would be raised for the appeal in Bathurst and Orange, but Lieutenant Williams said she is not going to join in the inter-city rivalry.
“We did our best. I don’t let it worry me. We did the best with what we’ve got,” she said.
