By Derek Schlennstedt
Over 120 people came out to support Gemco in their variety concert for the bushfires.
The ‘Lending a Hand for Bushfire, Variety Concert’ was held on 18 January and raised over $6500, which will be directly donated to affected communities.
Performers from across Melbourne donated their time and skills to raise money for the bushfire relief, and Gemco President, Evie Housham said there were dancers, stand-up comedians, and even a visit from the Mighty Little Puppets.
“It was fantastic. There was an amazing quantity of people who came all the way up from Melbourne to come and stand on the stage,” she said.
“It was incredibly professional and the quality of performance was quite outstanding.”
“We had auctions in between for massages and bottles of wine, and people were incredibly generous. There was a Puffing Billy voucher and people really came out to support the bushfire initiative.”
Entry was by donation and auctions were held throughout the night.
“It was a complete fill-out and we extra two lines of seats,” she said.
Speaking to the Mail Ms Housham said everything raised would be donated to the Genoa Boarding Kennels to help them rebuild, the CFA and Beyond Blue.
“We’ve put the money towards the Genoa Kennels.”
“Their place was burnt to the ground and they managed to get all their animals they cared for into a shipping container until the fire passed over.
“Amazingly, they put other people’s animals in front of their own property.
“We’re also very keen to support the CFA and the people who are actually out there on the fire front, and then we also let the audience choose where they would like to see the donations go to, so a portion of that money will go to Beyond Blue to provide emotional support for people affected.”
Gemco donated the venue, and all performers performed free of charge, with everything being organised by volunteers.
“In the Dandenong’s we live with fire risk every summer, so we just wanted to help the bushfire crisis any way we can,” Ms Housham said.
