Halloween Weekend raises money to stop local Dairy doors closing

45960166 573014179794763 6050195484981592064 N

 

BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort in Airlie Beach had a very successful Halloween with their annual fundraising weekend, Camp and sCare, raising $7810.30 towards keeping the doors of the Eungella dairy farm open.

With the resort totally booked out, perfect Whitsundays weather and hundreds of families enjoying the Halloween theme and the wonders of the new mega, huge Waterslide Park, the atmosphere was as good as it gets. The annual fund-raising weekend is very popular amongst local families and this year money raised from the camping sites and the guest activities will be contributed towards Eungelladale to try and keep the Mackay dairy farm open. $5680.30 was raised over the weekend from site fees and guest activities and $2310.00 was raised by guest activities prior to the weekend, which will combine to make the total donation of $7810.30.

Greg McKinnon, owner of BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort said, “I am passionate about supporting local businesses and if we can keep the Eungella Dairy open it will be to all our advantage. This just shows how when people pull together you can make a huge difference. Parmalat stopped collecting milk from local dairy farmers on 1 November and unless Dale and Paula Fortescue of Eungelladale can raise the remaining $12,000 for a pasteurising plant by the end of November we will lose our last supplier of local milk.”

Many of the animals in the Animal Park at BIG4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort have actually come from the Eungella farm and children visiting the resort thoroughly enjoy petting the animals and the animal feeding sessions. For many children it is their only chance to get near these cute farm animals.

If people reading this would like to support keeping the Eungella dairy doors open they can go to http://www.eungelladale.com.au/Donate/Donate.html to donate. The Fortescue family are one of the few dairy farmers left in our region as the price of milk has made it uneconomical for companies to collect and process. Paula and Dale Fortescue have set up a crowd-funding site to try and raise enough money to set up their own pasteurising plant to keep processing milk for the local market.

3 November 2017