In a light-filled living room in Thurgoona, Mardi and Mark Haydon have set up an exercise bike they plan to pedal on Good Friday to thank the Royal Children’s Hospital — a symbolic, public act born from long hours at a hospital bedside. The Haydons’ 24-hour ride is part of a wider tide of local fundraising familiar to many who take part in the good friday appeal.
Good Friday Appeal: personal returns of gratitude
Last April the Haydons welcomed their son, Henry, and then spent Easter at the Royal Children’s Hospital while Henry recovered from complications. “We just wanted to do something to say our thanks and to give back to the hospital, ” Mardi Haydon said, describing how being there over Easter revealed the joy the appeal brings to patients and families. The family later spent a month at the hospital before continuing care on the Border, and now, as Henry approaches his first birthday, the couple will cycle for 24 hours on Good Friday to raise funds.
Mardi Haydon, who has recently returned to play goal attack for Thurgoona after focusing on Henry, spoke of perspective gained in the wards: “They (the nurses and doctors) are so incredible and you don’t really see it all until you’re in that position. ” The Haydons’ challenge is one of several personal efforts highlighted by families who want to give back to a hospital that supported them through prolonged stays.
How do communities mobilize for the cause?
Across towns, long-standing community rituals underpin the good friday appeal: door-knocking brigades, tin-rattling at sporting fixtures, raffles and even novelty events. In Corowa and Wahgunyah, organiser Karie Playford coordinates a program that begins with a Battle of the Bridge collection and moves through door-knocking and emergency-services cruises. “We kick off on Good Friday morning with the Battle of the Bridge, ” Karie Playford said, describing how the event brings local clubs and volunteers together each year.
Corowa/Wahgunyah also supports an annual sheep drive and auction, with producers donating stock to be sold and proceeds dedicated to the fundraising effort. Rutherglen Football Club president Greg Lumby described how players and members bring tins to a home game as part of the morning’s activities, calling it “a great cause” and a player-driven initiative. These local rituals — familiar, competitive and social — channel small acts into significant totals for the hospital.
What families and volunteers say about giving back
For some donors the appeal is a full-circle moment. Sixteen-year-old Luca Barclay, who spent weeks in hospital as a child, will take part in door-to-door fundraising with the Allansford CFA. “It’s good to raise the money for kids that are in need of it, ” Luca said. His father, Scott Barclay, recalled the stress of having a child hospitalised and the relief of practical supports that made long stays manageable. “Little things like being able to stay there, we were able to stay when he was in for weeks at a time, ” Scott Barclay said, reflecting on how presence made a difference during a difficult period.
Other long-term volunteers model persistence: decades of tin-rattling at a single corner, local brigades taking their first separate tallies, and club-led raffles all demonstrate a civic muscle built on personal stories. For organisers, seeing towns “pull together every year” is its own reward; for families, it is a tangible way to repay care received.
From a hospital ward to a town square, the cycle of care and gratitude is visible in small, deliberate acts — a 24-hour bike ride in Thurgoona, door-knockers in Allansford, a sheep drive in Corowa — each contributing to the larger hope that funds raised will support children and families who need it next.
Back in Thurgoona, as the Haydons test the handlebars and plan shifts for their 24-hour challenge, the exercise bike is already a quiet monument to a year that began in a hospital room and is now being repaid in pedal strokes. The question that remains is not whether the community will show up — they always do — but how many more families will be able to turn their own hardship into a hand extended to the next child who needs care.
