Daughter brings home top raffle prize

The Mitchell Freemasons and Mitchell Men's Shed combined to raise money for men's mental and physical health.

RAFFLE WINNER: Zo Edgley with her new camphor laurel blanket box. Picture: Mitchell Men's Shed

A MITCHELL family has won a camphor laurel blanket box after Zo Edgley bought a ticket in the Hand, Heat, Pocket charity raffle at the weekend.

The Mitchell Freemasons and Mitchell Men's Shed ran a combined raffle during November box to raise money for men's mental and physical health, with the grand prize being drawn at the Men's Shed sausage sizzle on Saturday.

Mitchell Freemasons Lodge secretary and treasurer Bill Saul said it was great the prize went to a local resident.

"When the mother of the Edgley family was buying a ticket, she expressed how amazing it would be to win the blanket box,” he said.

"In the end it came down to her young daughter Zo, who bought a ticket and won it for the family, which was a great result.”

Mitchell Men's Shed Steve Goldner made the blanket from donated camphor laurel timber.

"I really enjoyed doing that sort of timber work, it was a great project even just doing it on a volunteer basis was fun,” he said.

"It was great helping out with the charity work because it was good for the community but also to be out there meeting new people and talking to them as we were selling tickets.”

Mr Goldner said he was overwhelmed with the support from the Mitchell community.

"We had huge amount of people donating and buying tickets,” he said.

"The Mitchell people are very generous with local charities.

"It's great to see.

"I personally delivered the box to the Edgley family, and they were very pleased that they had won it, very happy.

"It was very rewarding and satisfying seeing the family pleased with the box.”

Mr Saul said Hand, Heart, Pocket was a charity of the Freemasons Queensland, partnering with the Men's Shed Australia Association to make men more aware of their mental and physical health.

"We would like to thank the community of Mitchell for their generosity,” he said.

"The man that ran the raffle and organised everything and made the camphor laurel box, Steve Goldner, would have to be one the kindest and most generous men out there.

"A lot of our members are out on properties so it is not the easiest thing to coordinate and Steve put his hand up and was happy to run things and he did a great job.”

Mr Saul said it was great working with the Men's Shed and he hoped it would be something they can do again sometime soon.

Originally published as Daughter brings home top raffle prize