Once again Love in Action Wallan (LIA) has brought the Mitchell Shire together in its third annual trivia night held late last month, in support of preparing for the charity’s biggest period of the year – Christmas.
Every year, the charity, which helps families and individuals in the Mitchell Shire with food and essential items, hosts its trivia night to help community members with food and presents during the festive season.
Community groups, businesses and supporters of LIA sat in groups at Kilmore Trackside this year, scrambling for trivia answers with an additional karaoke competition to gain extra points for the winning teams.
On the night, LIA raised $3400 through ticket purchases, raffles tickets, and a silent auction, with a gracious donation from the Rotary Recycled Op-Shop in Kilmore adding another $5000 – bringing the total value to almost $9000 for the Christmas period.
LIA President Sarah Brewer said the atmosphere on the night was fantastic, with phenomenal support from several community groups.
“It was lovely to see such amazing support from individuals, local businesses, and organisations,” she said.
“It was a miserably cold winters night, but everybody still came out.
“To raise anything in this climate is an incredible success, especially when so many people are struggling, and to have a combined total of that is fantastic.
“We’re over the moon, so anything that was raised was going to help us, help so many families buy presents, buy lots of treats that the families can have at Christmas as well.”
Counting down the weeks to Christmas, with only 20 weeks away, LIA is wanting to make this year its biggest Christmas yet.
The charity group currently has 300 families on record, supporting at least five families a week, with volunteers helping as much as they can during the cost-of-living crisis.
Ms Brewer said the trivia night was the source of making Christmas possible.
“In order for us to be able to service the community throughout the year, based on what comes to us from community donations, we need to do a fundraiser like this to be able to do what we do at Christmas,” she said.
“Last Christmas, we ran out of food, I think twice, if not three times. We were starting to wonder how we going to keep bringing it in, and then had some lovely last minute donations. But if we hadn’t had last year’s trivia night, we would’ve not gotten even a quarter of what was needed to be done.”
Ms Brewer thanked all individuals and businesses that came to the trivia night and donated prizes.