Everything you missed at the Jacaranda Finance Drought Row-lief

Jacaranda Finance held their first ever charity fundraiser last Saturday the 8th of September. The Drought Row-lief row-a-thon was held at Science Fitness in South Brisbane and F45 Training Centre in Paddington. Each gym had a show of rowing machines going for 90 minutes and Founder and CEO of Jacaranda, Daniel Wessels, is now donating $40 for every kilometre that was rowed.

With 10 rowing machines going on the day and a crowd of enthusiastic rowers, both gyms clocked 221 kilometres collectively. Originally Wessels was planning to donate $20 per kilometre. However, coming off a big win at the previous nights 2018 Young Entrepreneur Awards where we won the Professional Services category, he has decided to generously double his donation.

“Both gyms were so unfit, we’ve had to double our donation,” Wessels laughed. “All in all, though, it was an absolute ripper of a day! The atmosphere at both gyms was just phenomenal and we were pleasantly surprised by the number of people who turned up to show their support.”

With 221 kilometres rowed and $40 being donated per kilometre, the row-a-thon alone managed to raise $8,840. However, with the money raised from the event’s Go Fund Me page, a silent auction at F45 Paddington, plus donations from the sausage sizzle, the event raised just over $11,000 for Aussie Helpers. This is inclusive of a whopping $500 donation from the team at Squarepay.

“We could not be happier with how the event went on the day and the amount of money we’ve managed to raise! Everyone was keen to jump on a rower and try to add to the kilometre count as much as possible. It just goes to show how easy and fun it can be to join together and do something good for the Australian community,” Wessels added.

Owners of the F45 training centres in Paddington, Toowong and Indooroopilly, Shaun and Rebecca Green, were even offering 14 day free passes to any non-members who got involved and had a row.

“We’re so pleased to have been a part of such an awesome cause! Everyone from the gym got involved making protein balls to sell, running to local vendors for prizes for our silent auction and doing their time on the rowing machine as well! We’d just like to thank all the local shops and cafes who donated to the cause and helped us raised over $1,000 just from our silent auction!” Shaun and Rebecca stated.

The event started at 7 am on Saturday morning at F45 and then the crowd moved onto Science of Fitness for a 9 am start there. Then, as the sweat started to fall, so did the rain. As if the skies were listening, on the morning of the event, QLD was blessed with some much-needed rain.

“How ironic that after months and months of no rain, the skies finally opened up the morning of our charity event for the drought relief. If that’s not a sign that we’re doing something good, I don’t know what is,” stated the Director of Science of Fitness, Joseph Agresta.

“We couldn’t believe how easy it was to organise the whole event. While we had plenty of help from the team at Jacaranda, all our members were immediately keen to get involved and help out in whatever way they could. We even had plenty of takers to move 7 heavy rowing machines inside once it started to rain,” Agresta added.

The Drought Row-lief event went so well that Jacaranda Finance has now decided to make it a yearly tradition, donating to different causes each time. “It’s so easy for us to get caught up in our own routines and not give too much thought about all the people out there who are doing it worse,” said Wessels.

“If we can spend just a few weeks each year organising an event to help the people in our community who are struggling, then I’d say that’s quite a small effort. Life is all about compromise but when it comes to giving to those in need, well it’s more of a privilege that we’re able to do so, don’t you think?”

All money raised is now going to be donated to Aussie Helpers to aid the Aussie farmers who have been struggling through a drought for years. For anyone who would like to get involved, you can still donate to the Drought Row-lief Go Fund Me page or through the Aussie Helpers website.

Jacaranda Finance, F45 Training Paddington and Science of Fitness would like to thank the following for their contributions to last weeks Drought Row-lief:

• Woolworths Paddington
• Aether Brewing Co.
• Ella Bache Paddington
• Lazer Clinic Paddington
• Acai Brothers Paddington
• Rosalie Market
• Libertine Restaurant
• Darling and Co.
• Little Social Paddington
• Kettle and Tin