Saturday was a lucky day for the Echuca Community House president when Echuca resident Sandra Walker handed him a cheque for more than $5800.
Ms Walker has been a member of the Order of the Eastern Star for the past five decades, dedicating their free time to raising money for worthy causes.
The event on Saturday, February 24, in Brighton culminated in 12 months of collecting cans for the local food bank run by the community house.
“Before the deposit scheme was introduced in Victoria last year, it was so much easier to collect recyclables as people would just drop them in the street,” Ms Walker said.
“While it was a lot of hard work, I was surprised to find out how much it totalled.”
Ms Walker also ran several fundraising efforts throughout the past 12 months, along with the recycling.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Order of the Eastern Star and the people of Echuca Moama for their ongoing support for this worthy cause,” she said.
The total amount was $5814.30, which was given to Community House president Trevor Crane on Saturday night, who was ecstatic with the figure.
“I was shocked with the amount on the cheque when I saw the total figure,” Mr Crane said.
“Originally, Ms Walker said the amount would be much lower, at $3500 and then came back to me and said it could be higher.”
Mr Crane was grateful for the many hours spent collecting the thousands of cans and the many raffles run over the previous year.
“This money will be a tremendous help to the local community as many people are struggling to make ends meet,” he said.
According to its website, the Order of the Eastern Star Australia is one of the largest worldwide organisations of people with shared beliefs and moral values.
It is committed to sharing, learning and community service.