Participate in the Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Appeal to bring joy to locals in need.
The Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Appeal is back this year and more important than ever due to the events and challenges of 2020. The appeal provides local families and senior citizens with hampers of basic meals and staples. In previous years, the appeal delivered roughly 700 hampers to those who needed a helping hand around Christmas time, and they also required fundraising efforts to raise roughly $70,000. But now there are many more people expected to need help during the festive season in 2020. In fact, this year’s fundraising target has now reached $100,000.
Mayor Bob Manning says “This crisis has had an incredibly devastating impact on our city. Times are tough and people are hurting…we anticipate that the impacts of coronavirus on the community will result in an increase in demand for hampers. We would ordinarily provide 700 hampers; I would not be surprised if we had twice as many people needing assistance this year.”
The fundraising normally begins in October however locals need more help while experiencing the current hardships and losses caused by the pandemic. Because of this, fundraising had already been launched to make sure that the demand for hampers can be fully met. Now it’s time for us to give generously and support our locals.
How can I help?
You can donate $65.00 to buy a family a hamper or donate $35.00 to buy a senior a hamper. To donate a select amount you can visit the page for this appeal here. Every cent that people donate to the Christmas Cheer Appeal will go to buying food supplies for the hampers, which will go to the people that need our help the most right now.
Council will be working with 20 local charities and organisations to identify residents who are eligible for this festive cheer. This includes the Benevolent Society, Ruth’s Women’s Shelter, Uniting Care, Wuchopperen and Anglicare Homeless Shelter. Additionally, there are a range of great Cairns media partners who will be donating services, including Adhesive Communications, Adllins Media, Cairns Post, CityLife, Channel Nine, Cre8 Design, GoTransit Media, HitFm, Oasis Media, TripleM, Yfilms, and PakMag!
That’s right – we want to share the love this Christmas and give back to the community that we adore. We encourage all of those who are capable to do the same thing and help another person or family have the Christmas they deserve.
Increased support and generosity have been coming from members of the Cairns community recently:
- The Cairns Business Women’s Club have kindly offered their support at their September networking luncheon. They will be selling raffle tickets with prizes supplied by local businesses.
- Thanks to the imagination and generosity of the Cairns hotel community the 5-Star Chefs for Charity dinner was born. The Hilton, Pullman International, Shangri-La and Pullman Reef Hotel Casino have come together with their head chefs to donate their time, expertise and work with their suppliers to provide all food and beverages at no cost. Every cent of the dinner ticket sales will go directly to the Cheer Appeal. This year’s dinner will be hosted by the Hilton.
- The Cairns Chamber of Commerce have selected the Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Appeal as the chosen charity for their Christmas luncheon.
- FGF Bitumen utilized their corporate event at the recent Cairns Cup day as an opportunity to raise over seven hundred dollars for the Appeal.
- The Reef Hotel Casino are collecting donations on behalf of the Appeal and even local schools are contacting Council on how they would like to raise money with activities at their school.
Donate here. Every donation over $2.00 is tax deductible.
You can also find a list local charities and organisations where you can confidentially apply for a hamper.
