BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort spooked it up over the weekend for a Halloween family event with a good cause. The resort’s annual Camp and sCare sell-out charity event, saw locals get together with their friends and family for a memorable mini-break.
Camp and sCare is an annual charity weekend held by BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort, not only to raise funds for charity, but to also offer a special family experience for local residents to enjoy the great outdoors for a night of camping under the stars and to enjoy all of the resort’s extensive facilities. Each year, the resort chooses a charity, individual or business to support, raising money not only through Camp and sCare, but via every one of the resort’s guest functions, which are used as a vehicle for fundraising.
All money raised from guests staying on powered sites on Friday night went directly to this year’s resort fundraiser for five-year-old local youngster, Elijah, who is undergoing treatment for leukemia. Over the weekend, with money raised from sites, raffles and activities, the resort raised a total of $4920. These funds were in addition to money already raised this the year from gold coin donations at resort events such as pancake breakfasts and sausage sizzles, with a total donation amount of $6,000 to be presented to the family.
BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort Marketing Manager, Tanya Cran, said, “We are speaking to Elijah’s mum, Anna, to determine how they would like to use these funds to assist Elijah and his family throughout his treatment. He is such a gorgeous, brave little boy and we just want to assist in any way we can to take the pressure off his family so they can concentrate on Elijah’s recovery.”
Guests went all out decorating for the spookiest campsite, cabin, costume, pumpkin, family costume and child costume competitions, which saw sites and cabins transformed into spooky haunts, and guests young and old dressed up in creepy costumes, creating an atmosphere to rival any Halloween celebrations. There was also lucky door prizes and a monster raffle with major prizes up for grabs.
Mrs Cran continued, “We really want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who was involved in making the weekend a great success. Most importantly, to our amazing guests and locals who come every year to this event. It is our biggest locals event of the year and we love to see families time and again come into our gates for a holiday which seems so far away, but is just down the road, to enjoy that special time connecting with their family and friends in a super fun environment.”
“We would also like to say a big thank you our local friends and businesses, who donated prizes for the weekend, including Ocean Rafting, Whitsunday Jetski Tours, Cruise Whitsundays, Notherlies Beach Bar & Grill, Fishi Seafood Whitsundays, Intuitive Massage and The Prickly Pineapple. The Prickly Pineapple and Stackelroth Farms in Bowen donated hundreds of pumpkins for decorations and carving, Queensland Horse Ball provided the pony rides and Whitsunday Rocks very kindly donated 35 rocks to hide around the gardens, which was just fabulous. It just shows how strong our community is when we come together and we can’t thank all of these businesses enough, particularly through what has been a challenging year for everyone. Finally, and very importantly, we want to say a huge thanks to our amazing staff, who not only donated their time over the weekend, but also took home pumpkins to carve out in preparation for the event. I can’t say that there wasn’t a little bit of in-house competition going on there,” joked Mrs Cran.
BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort staff diligently carved out 60 pumpkins to decorate around the resort, while there were another whopping 520 pumpkins donated by The Prickly Pineapple and Stackelroth Farms, to distribute to the spooky youngsters for carving and decorating.
From the moment of check-in, families had a weekend of Halloween style activities at their fingertips including a pumpkin carving workshop, spooky crafts, pony rides, animal park feedings, sausage sizzle, pancakes by the pool breakfast and Halloween themed movies at the outdoor cinema. On top of the special organised activities, the resort has plenty to keep the family entertained with a host of amazing facilities including the huge 13 slide water park.