Coles Broken Hill has set a fundraising target of $36,000 towards assisting in the fight against and finding a cure for Motor Neurone Disease (MND). The national brand is once again partnering with FightMND, Australia’s leading MND foundation, co-founded by AFL legend Neale Daniher, who’s been batting the disease since 2013.
One of the top national fundraisers over the past three years, Coles Broken Hill was also NSW’s number one fundraising store in 2022. Last year, the store raised a total of $35,137, having collectively raised over $66,000 since 2018. In 2023, the store is hoping to raise $36,000.
The now iconic blue Big Freeze beanies are back in stock at Coles for 2023. 100 per cent of funds raised from sales of the beanies go towards FightMND. Beanie sales as well as cash donations through the tills have seen Coles Broken Hill raise $16,500 in the two weeks since the launch of this year’s campaign already.
Coles will also be donating various amounts from the sales of different specially marked pork products and icy pole lemonade 8-packs.
Coles Broken Hill is also thinking of additional ways to raise money, looking at holding some sausage sizzles over the next few weeks, and trying to work out a way to get the beanies to local AFL Broken Hill matches – the Big Freeze being a synonymous event with the wider AFL community in the annual King’s Birthday clash between Collingwood and Melbourne at the MCG.
Fran Moore, Store Manager at Coles Broken Hill, told the Barrier Truth that it was important for the community to rally behind causes such as FightMND and the Big Freeze, and was appreciative of all support.
“For me, coming from a couple of rural areas, what I’ve noticed is that country people do really like to support the local community. And yes, I think you’ll probably find that a lot of people have been touched by MND personally somewhere along the line. I think that’s why the community spirit’s up there because they just want to show their support for anything that we put out, not only MND,” she said.
“We really would just really appreciate any support from the local community to get behind it. Obviously, I think the AFL community understand what it’s all about, it’s just getting hopefully the other community people part of it to help drive it because we don’t have the luxury of the city stores. It’s literally Coles Express and us and that’s it [as to] where they can get their beanies.
“As a store manager for Coles, it’s about our community. That’s the way I see it. That’s an expectation from the business is that we get behind our community as well so I’m happy to do that for the community and the community definitely respond and support those causes.
“We just want as much support as we can and hopefully, we can reach our target of the $36,000 because that’s $36,000 FightMND will get for a great cause.”
People can purchase Big Freeze beanies from Coles or Coles Express for $25. The fundraising campaign will run until Tuesday, June 20 in all Coles supermarkets and until Wednesday, June 28 at selected Coles Express sites.
