BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort has raised a staggering total of $10,009.64 for RACQ CQ Rescue from its annual ‘Camp and sCare’ charity event over the weekend. The popular Halloween family minibreak for a good cause was once again a sell-out, with all cabins and sites booked and over 1,000 excited children and parents enjoying plenty of spooky fun.
Camp and sCare is a super spooky, but oh-so-full-of-fun, annual charity weekend held by BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort, not only to raise funds, but to also offer a special family experience for local residents to enjoy the great outdoors for a night of camping under the stars, or in the comfort of a cabin, and to enjoy all of the resort’s extensive facilities.
Each year, the resort chooses a charity, individual or business to support and raise funds for. This year, all funds were raised for donation to RACQ CQ Rescue, an invaluable emergency service for Whitsundays residents and the surrounding regions between Townsville, Rockhampton and the Galilee Basin, to 200kms offshore to the Great Barrier Reef. On average an hour in the air costs CQ Rescue approx. $10,500, with over 9,000 tasks completed to date.
“With the Whitsundays making up 41% of RACQ CQ Rescue’s regional tasks, we really wanted to support them with our fundraising this year. The reality is that any Whitsunday resident or holidaymaker may need their services at some point in time, so it is an organisation that the McKinnon family and our team really wanted to support,” said BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort Marketing Manager, Tanya Cran.
“While Camp and sCare is always a big event for us, this year’s fundraising total was a record for the most we have ever raised, topping last year’s total of $8970.18, which was split equally and donated to two local community centres, the Whitsunday Neighbourhood Centre and the Proserpine Community Centre, to assist local residents in need by providing gifts and food in the lead up to Christmas. We were so happy with last year’s fundraising result, so needless to say we are very excited to have surpassed that amount this year,” said Tanya.
Zenta and Rona who look after Fundraising and Events at RACQ CQ Rescue are always amazed by the support received from the community. Zenta says, “we know how hard it can be to organise, manage and co-ordinate an event, so we’re extremely grateful that BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort put in so much work for their guests and with their help raised such an incredible amount. Thank you to everyone that was involved. We are proud to be here for our community as much as they are here for us.”
Over the weekend, money was raised from Friday night camp site bookings, raffles and a range of activities. Guests went all out decorating for the spookiest campsite, cabin, family costume and children’s 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.
“The calibre of cabin and campsite decorations was next level. Our guests once again went all out and put an incredible effort into creating a surreal environment and an amazing Halloween experience for the kids to enjoy trick or treating. It really topped everything off and we thank everyone for their amazing contributions,” said Tanya.
From the moment of check-in, families had a weekend of Halloween style activities at their fingertips including gold coin donation activities such as face painting, Halloween craft workshops, monster raffles, a huge sausage sizzle, pancakes by the pool breakfast, haunted Wii Just Dance disco and tons of other spine-tingling fun!
On top of the special organised activities, the resort offered plenty of free entertainment with a host of amazing facilities, including the huge slide water park, animal park feeding and Halloween themed movies at the outdoor cinema.
Tanya continued, “We always have great support, not only from the local residents and visitors who attend this event, but from our local friends and partners, so we must make a special mention and pass on a big thanks to Woolworths Cannonvale who donated 250 sausages and slices of bread. We were also given some amazing raffle prizes with a big shout out to Ocean Rafting, Cruise Whitsundays, Whitsunday Jetski Tours, Whitsunday Crocodile Safari and Northerlies Bar & Grill. Of course, we can’t say thank you enough to all of our amazing guests for staying with us and donating, as well as our own team who volunteered their time to make the event the success that it was. It just shows how strong our community is when we come together, particularly as we come out of the past two years.”
Set amongst lush, landscaped grounds, multi award-winning BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday 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. The resort offers a huge range of facilities including the massive waterslide park, lagoon-style swimming pool, outdoor cinema, pedal karts, tennis court, mini-golf, adventure playground, basketball, volleyball and much more.