It was a full house at BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort over the weekend when locals and tourists alike enjoyed a family weekend for a good cause at Camp and Care, raising over $5,000 for Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organisation, WIRES, the NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service.
Traditionally held each year on Halloween, Camp and Care is a well-known and much-loved event for Whitsunday locals. Discounted rates for powered sites are fully donated to charitable causes, as well as fundraising from gold coin donations for a huge range of inhouse activities.
BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort’s Marketing Manager, Tanya Cran, said, “Like all Australians we wanted to help support the impacts of the bushfire crisis and it was the perfect opportunity to add another Camp and Care to the event calendar as it is one of our major fundraising channels. We fundraise year-round for various causes through inhouse events, but we know this is something the locals enjoy, so it was the best way to raise funds and welcome our local families.”
The Camp and Care weekend was jam packed with activities including a pancakes by the pool breakfast, Wii Just Dance Disco and sausage sizzle, raffles, face painting, glow sticks, Aussie crafts and games and pony rides. On top of the special organised activities, the resort had plenty to keep the family entertained with a host of amazing facilities including the huge 13 slide water park, outdoor cinema, jumping pillows and animal park.
“Our goal was to raise $5,000 and when the funds were tallied up, we just tipped that goal with an overall amount of $5,055.60. These funds will go directly to WIRES to support and assist the recovery of our Australian wildfire. The whole team at BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort can’t thank the locals enough who came to support this event, as well as business partners who donated and our staff who offered their time. A big shout out to our local firies who also made an appearance, much to the joy of the little ones,” said Ms Cran.
According to WIRES, hundreds of fires raging for months have burnt over 18.6 million hectares nationally and 20% of Australian forests have been lost. It is impossible to know how many animals have perished but it’s been conservatively estimated that over 1 billion animals have been impacted in Australia since September. The allocation of donations received by WIRES will be used to assist as many animals as possible across the nation, with funding allocated to support all states and territories where needed to assist animals affected.
Set amongst lush landscaped grounds the resort caters for a variety of budgets and tastes with a wide range of accommodation options from camping and caravanning sites to designer decorated three bedroom condos. BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort has a huge range of facilities including the massive waterslide park, a lagoon-style swimming pool, outdoor cinema, giant jumping pillows, pedal karts, full-size tennis court, mini-golf, adventure playground, basketball, volleyball, badminton, bocce, table tennis and more!