Residents from Cobb Haven have collected 100,000 bottles and cans to raise $10,000 for Echuca Regional Health’s Cancer and Wellness Centre.
Peter Walker and John Muelenkamp have donated the second cheque of $6000 to the Cancer and Wellness Centre after 12 months of collecting recyclables from the residents and their families and exchanging them at the cash-back recycling point at Moama Woolworths Plaza.
“We’re donating $6000, and we donated $4000 a while ago, which makes this 100,000 bottles and cans that we’ve collected for the Cancer and Wellness Centre,” Mr Walker said.
“We collect the bottles and cans from Cobb Haven Lifestyle Village.
“The residents leave their bottles and cans out for John and I on a Thursday, and we bring them down to the machine and try to put them through the machine.
“Sometimes we have to wait 12 hours, and we will wait to put them through.”
The donation is an annual occurrence for the duo, who have raised money in the past for the welfare committee at the estate, and donated walkers, wheelchairs and flowers with the money.
During the last three years of collecting, Mr Walker estimates they have raised about $50,000.
“The money we raise goes back into the welfare committee, but the committee doesn’t need $10,000, so we decided to give it to the hospital,” Mr Walker said.
“Before we started collecting, all of our waste from the estate would go into landfill.
“We never had a collection service of any sort, so we thought we’d collect it and recycle it.”
Interim executive director of nursing Michelle Shingles has welcomed the donation and thanked the group for their hard work.
“It’s an absolutely stunning contribution from a group of people who got together of their own accord to make a difference and volunteer,” she said.
“$10,000 is a huge contribution, and it’s not money that was just sitting around, it was money that they have worked hard for.
“We are so grateful for the effort that they have put in — and it is real effort, it’s money not easily come by.”