11 November 2024
In October, the Yorke Peninsula Prostate Cancer Support Group raised over $1,400 in just five hours for prostate cancer initiatives.
Group leader and prostate cancer survivor Robert Kidd was extremely impressed by the group’s efforts to raise so much money in such a short period of time.
Now, he’s sharing his tips to inspire other groups to host a fundraiser.
“Almost every year, we host a local barbeque fundraiser before the Labour Day long weekend in South Australia,” he said.
With permission from Minlaton’s Foodland, the group set up trestle tables and a barbeque outside the store and cooked.
“We cooked steak sandwiches and sausages, coleslaw, and onion. We were also handing out items from the Foundation, including blue wristbands and blue lapel pins – they’re pretty popular.
“We also flew prostate cancer blue balloons near our sandwich stand and advertised our meetings when we have them.
“We were very grateful that Minlaton Foodland donated most of the supplies for our barbecue, the meat and the onions, which was very generous of them.
“We held it on that Friday before the long weekend because we get a lot of tourists and visitors coming through Minlaton heading down towards the bottom end of the peninsula.
“We also handed out brochures, and most of us had our blue polo shirts on or the Big Aussie barbecue aprons, and our blue hats so everyone who stopped to get food knew who we were,” Robert said.
Robert added that they advertised the event in the Yorke Peninsula Country Times on the Tuesday before the event.
The following day, the group raised further funds at the Stansbury markets. Busker Rob Tonkin donated his earnings to our group, and the Stansbury Progress Association and the Stansbury Croc Club chipped in with another donation.
“Combined proceeds from these events were almost $2200. We’re just amazed by the results, and know that it’ll make a difference.”
Rob's top tips on how to host a barbecue fundraiser:
- Enlist volunteers to take on 2-hour shifts to help with cooking and purchases.
- Develop a relationship with the local supermarket and kindly request if they can provide the produce free-of-charge.
- Promote the event in your local newspaper a week before and call on local business premises in the town with a flyer promoting the lunch.
- Say thank you! Say thank you to people who purchase a sausage and write a thank you letter to the editor in the newspaper a week later.
- Organise a raffle with help from the local supermarket.
Photo: Robert Kidd, Kingsley Clift, and hamper winner Cheryl Carmichael.
