Wodonga store sale: Bright shirts for mental health awareness

The pink and green shirt brigade will swap their corporate outfits at next week’s sale for wild colours, all in the name of a good cause.

Those going to next week’s Wodonga store sale will have more than cattle on their minds.

After a series of suicides connected with farming clients and families in the Albury area, two stock agencies have dedicated the May store sale to improving mental health.

Elders and Paull and Scollard Nutrien agents are swapping their corporate pink and green uniforms for brightly coloured Trademutt shirts with the goal of encouraging people to talk about mental health.

Kirsty Taylor from Elders and Dan Holt from Paull and Scollard Nutrien will both be part of the agents who will trade their pink and green shirts for loud and colourful TradeMutt shirts for the Wodonga store sale on May 4 to get people starting conversations about mental health.

Elders Albury livestock manager Brett Shea said the pressure on stock and station agents in dealing with mental health and suicide was “very significant, considering how close we are to our clients and staff that can be suffering at any time”.

“We have many talented young men and women in both of our businesses that deal with the extremes that agriculture throws at us, this is our commitment to them and to our communities in which we work that has us completely in support of the This Is A Conversation Starter (TIACS) cause,” Mr Shea said.

“Swapping our shirts will hopefully get people starting conversations about mental health and help make an invisible issue impossible to ignore.”

Kirsty Taylor from Elders and Dan Holt from Paull and Scollard Nutrien said almost everyone had been touched by someone who had challenges with mental health.

Paull and Scollard Nutrien agent Tim Robinson said the two stock and station agencies had

combined their resources to ensure the sale in May was “a successful event for a very good cause”.

“Our team has been personally impacted by suicide on several occasions and we have banded together to get through some very tough days,” Mr Robinson said.

“But it’s out of that, we’re ready to unite to make a stand about mental health being such a big issue in our communities, committing to the TIACS slogan of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.”

Mr Robinson said next week’s store cattle sale, on May 4, would begin with the auction of cattle that had been donated to TIACS.

Donated goods will also be offered on AuctionsPlus in an online offering that will allow others from further afield to participate and support the fundraiser.

“We are using our store sale platform and our professional networks further afield to promote this great cause,” Mr Robinson said.

Next week’s store sale will kick off at 9am.