Bondi’s rescue bid for flooded town
The Bondi community has banded together and thrown a ‘charity gig’ for the forgotten town of Texas, just north of the border, and raised $3418.30.
The fundraising event was conceived by two Bondi locals, Rimma Aranchikov and Collette Grech, as they shared a beer at the Tea Gardens Hotel, Bondi, and watched media coverage of the floods.
“We talked about going up there to sandbag, and felt hopeless drinking our beer, so we decided the best way to help was to raise money,” Grech said.
Bondi’s fringe musicians pledged their support, and by Sunday, January 23, a host of musical acts performed for 260 Bondi locals at the Bondi Bowling Club, all of whom donated $10 at the door.
Local act Matt Booth and the Sparkling Sandancers (Gavdog, Svet and Mikey) headlined the event with their original brand of psychadelic rock.
Rimma Aranchikov gained the support of many local businesses which donated prizes for a raffle.
The pledged ingredients of the ‘gold coin donation’ sausage sizzle were typical of the community cooperation: Australian Gourmet Meat sausages; Soname bread; lettuce, onions and tomatoes from Fruitologist; sauces from Nando’s; and salt and pepper from IGA.
Texas was chosen as the beneficiary as Grech’s sister, Keturah Grech, a local resident who’s affiliated with the SES, suggested the valley was a ‘forgotten area’ of the floods and needed support.
Texas is a town of 900 people, north-west of Tenterfield, where houses on the ‘river flats’ were decimated by the record floods last month.
A “very grateful” former president of the Lions Club, Les Cox, said his organisation had received the charity.
“It would take us 12 months to raise this kind of money here, and we’d be hitting locals again,” he said.
The organisation is now considering planning options. “We want to make an impact,” Cox said.
– By Matt Khoury
