The inaugural fundraising event for The Darling Muffs of May that aimed to raise $10,000 for frontline services for women’s homelessness in the Northern Rivers has exceeded its target.
The ‘Show Us Your Muff’ campaign asked people to anonomuffly show their muff in an exhibition of the Great Wall of Muffs last Friday to raise money for women’s homelessness.
‘Not everyone was comfortable showing their muff, so some people made muffins, some people held a High Muff Tea muffin competition while others were happy to take a photo of their muff or merkin and exhibit it on the Great Wall,’ said Muffketeer Melanie Saunders.
Throughout the month of May people registered on the Darling Muffs website and asked their friends to sponsor their muff action.
‘We raised just over $8,000 through the peer to peer fundraising and over $7,000 was earned through ticket sales to The Great Wall of Muff opening, fundraising at the event and sales of the images from The Great Wall of Muffs portraits and local artist’s muff-inspired works. Despite working hard for over 18 months, over 50 per cent of the funds we raised arrived in the past ten days,’ said Sally Mathrick another of the four Muffketeers.
‘MC Mandy Noaln said on the night “Let’s push the target up to $20,000” and we thought we’d keep the platform open until 7 May so anyone who still wants to donate has a final week to get online and sponsor a friend or donate straight to the Darling Muffs of May at www.darlingmuffs.com.au. It’s tax deductible too.’
The Darling Muffs of May will donate the money raised to six Northern Rivers frontline services who work in supporting women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness: the Mullumbimby and District Neighbourhood centre, Women Up North, the SHIFT Project, Fred’s Place, Liberation Larder and Th eByron Community Centre.
‘We were really fortunate to have received grant funding to get the project off the ground from CASP (Country Arts Support Program) so we were able to have a fantastic opening night with local performers, musicians and artists. Then we had the exhibition open over the weekend for free. Our other main sponsors were The Mullumbimby Chamber of Commerce, The Echo as well as our own small businesses, Engana Graphics, Rock n Roll Muma and Sparkle Well,’ said Muffketeer Elle Marinucci.
Keep your eyes out for next year’s fundraiser and start thinking about how you might ‘Show Us Your Muff’ for women’s health.
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