Hervey Bay, Bundaberg named among Australia’s most generous cities by GoFundMe
From making a bucket list dream come true to funding lifesaving medical procedures, these two regional cities have showed they have deep pockets when it really counts.
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Hervey Bay and Bundaberg have been named among the top ten “most generous” cities in Australia.
GoFundMe’s annual Year In Help report has revealed the seaside city came in fourth out of the country’s top ten cities when it came to supporting fundraisers on the website in 2022.
The rum city took out third place.
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Wagga Wagga in New South Wales was named the most generous city in Australia, followed by Mackay in second place.
According to the report, one of Hervey Bay’s top fundraisers was organised by Bayside Transformations director Tina Davie.
After the Torquay property was put on the market this year, a GoFundMe page was created to help the Bayside Transformations team put a deposit down to purchase the centre and keep it running.
More than $14,000 was raised to help purchase the property.
Many other local fundraisers were launched on the platform this year, including one by the family of Maryborough twin Haylee Jade Camm who is fighting for life in Brisbane Children’s Hospital.
The fundraiser, which only started on November 8, has already raised $5,507 out of the $15,000 goal.
More than $1500 in donations was raised on a GoFundMe page to support the children of Hervey Bay mum Kylie Thorburn who was tragically killed in a car crash in July this year.
Jen Ormerod from Hervey Bay also launched a fundraiser on the platform to help her husband, Scott, tick off the dreams on his bucket list after receiving a shock cancer diagnosis in November 2021.
Scott lost his fight with bowel cancer in September this year.
Meanwhile in the rum city, the Project Brupeg fundraiser secured enough donations to help a Bundaberg couple give the iconic fishing trawler a new engine.
The page surpassed their goal of $60,000 and reached $62,943 in donations to buy a second-hand donor engine and other parts to rebuild the vessel.
A total of $5514 was also raised in a fundraiser for the family of Bundaberg baby Banksie-Blu, who faced surgery to remove her limbs, as she clung to life in Brisbane Children’s Hospital.
She died in November this year.
A fundraiser was also started for a Bundaberg teenager who was critically injured after he fell into a creek at Avoca in January.
A total of $11,358 was raised by the community out of the $12,500 goal.
In a statement, GoFundMe Australia director Nicola Britton said that calls for support were “answered quickly in cities due to the close-knit nature of Australian communities”.
“The generosity shown by millions of Australians who donated or launched fundraisers on GoFundMe this year shows that the Aussie spirit of mateship, and backing those in need, is stronger than ever despite economic uncertainty,” Ms Britton said.
“In the post-pandemic period of rising cost of living, a national housing crisis, and continuing flooding events, it’s important now more than ever that we stand side-by-side to help one another as personal circumstances continue to evolve.”
She noted Wagga Wagga took out the top spot in 2019 and said it was “great to see” the community continuing to be recognised as one of the country’s most generous.
The rankings of the cities were based on donations per capita for 2022.
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