The Collie Senior High School Anzac tour group recently received an unexpected funding boost after a country music legend lent his support to their fundraising efforts.
The group, who are raising funds for a commemorative Anzac trip to Vietnam in April, made a video asking country hit maker Lee Kernaghan if he could perform a one-off show in Collie to raise funds for their tour after hearing he was performing in Boyup Brook .
The video was posted to Facebook and eventually caught the attention of Kernaghan’s management, who said although he wouldn’t be able to perform in Collie, he would like the students to come to Boyup Brook to meet Kernaghan.
Students Rebecca Lockyear, Chloe Garner and Shanice Ryan attended the Boyup Brook Country Music Festival and to meet the musician.
While at the festival Kernaghan donated and auctioned off a signed guitar, which raised $9000 for the group.
Miss Lockyear said the money provided a boost for the group who are now only $1000 off their total target. “Initially, with our fundraising the goal was quite hard to reach and fundraising has slowed down a little bit, so we needed to propose an event that would bring in a good amount of money for us to reach our goal,” she said.
“What we proposed was we heard Lee Kernaghan was in Boyup Brook for the music festival and we initially wanted him to do a Anzac exclusive performance for us at the Miners Institute Hall.
“So what we did was we made a video and we posted it to his Facebook.”
Miss Lockyear said they chose Kernaghan, as he writes and sings about the Vietnam war in his music.
“He sings a lot of songs about the Vietnam war and he seems like a genuine guy and he would be interested in it and turns out that he was overwhelmed when we explained everything,” she said.
Miss Garner said the video was viewed and shared by people from across the state.
“We posted it to his Facebook which the video got over 5000 views and so many shares all over WA and then it reached Lee Kernaghan’s management who got in touch with Rebecca and Mr Croft- the tour organiser and then they invited us down to the Boyup Brook Music Festival to actually meet Lee Kernaghan,” she said.
Miss Ryan said the country music legend was interested in hearing about the plans for their Anzac tour.
“When we met him he was really sincere about everything, he wanted to know everything that we have done and why we are doing it,” she said.
“Then he donated a guitar and he signed it in front of us with ‘spirit of the Anzacs’ and his signature because he said that would mean a little bit more because it relates back to what we are doing and why we are doing it.”
Miss Ryan said they were invited on stage to address the crowd before the guitar was auctioned off.
The group said they are confident they will meet their fundraising target, with only $1000 to go.
The students said the fundraising experience has been a lot of hard work but also very rewarding.
