Lions Club gets behind Farmstrong

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An annual fundraiser held by Tokoroa Host Lions Club gave farmers a much-needed night out and raised funds for Farmstrong and two other local organisations.

Local dairy farmer Bruce Luxford helped organise the event, which included a sit-down dinner and special guest speaker, fishing guru Bill Hohepa.

Bruce says the timing of this month’s event was great because calving has finished, and farmers could get out and enjoy themselves.

“Everybody has been ass up and heads down and haven’t seen their neighbours or friends. The event gave them the opportunity to get off the farm and catch up with everyone before Christmas,” says Bruce, who describes himself as semi-retired.

“It was a great night, and we had about 170 people attending, and it was good to see everybody catching up and having a good time.”

Bruce says he enjoyed chatting with people he hadn’t seen for a while.

“The fundraiser was the fruition of a couple of months work, and it was great to see it all come together.”

How the fundraiser worked

The fundraiser, which has been running for 27 years, raises money through the sale of weaned calves (reared up to 100kg), which are donated by local farmers and then sold by a local agent for no commission.

For every calf donated, the farmer receives two free tickets to the fundraising event, which was held at the South Waikato Sport and Events Centre.

The event raised $45,000, which was split evenly between Farmstrong, the Tokoroa Community Hospice Trust and the Cancer Society’s Lions Lodge in Hamilton.

Farmstrong resources popular with punters

This is the first year Farmstrong has been included in the fundraiser, Bruce says.

“Farmstrong is a good organisation to support. We had lots of Farmstrong resources for people to take home on the night and had some pretty good feedback on the new Farmstrong book. There are some pretty good ideas in there.”

Bruce is keen to start up a local Mountain Biking for Farmers group, similar to Surfing for Farmers.

“It would be good to have another excuse to get off the farm. A lot of the young guys here work their hearts out and they need to make sure they’re getting off the farm and having a break.”