We baked, we laughed, we ran – all in the name of charity

If there’s one thing we love here at Luminary, it’s getting behind a good cause. And we did plenty of that in 2019. Here are some of the highlights of our charitable giving activities over the year. 

Biggest Morning Tea 

Our annual Biggest Morning Tea Bake-off for the Cancer Council has become an eagerly anticipated event on the Luminary social calendar. For the second year in a row, team members rolled up their sleeves (or convinced their significant others to roll up their sleeves!) to take part. This year, our fundraising efforts were helped along by a hotly contested ‘Pin the Cherry on the Pancake Stack’ competition and our inaugural ‘Tea Cup Sweepstakes’. Our final tally came in at just under $300, smashing last year’s total and providing enough funding for a two-night stay at a local Cancer Council lodge for someone in need of vital treatment. 

Tracky Dack Day 

On Friday 30 August, we put a unique spin on ‘Tracky Dack Day’, an initiative by TLC for Kids to raise funds for sick kids and their families. The idea is that workplaces allow staff to wear trackies to work for a day. However, we decided to amp it up a notch by also convincing our CEO, Marty, to wear a custom made ‘Snuggie’. For every $150 raised, Marty had to wear the Snuggie for an hour. So the more we raised, the longer he had to wear it 😜 And then, for every $50 donated beyond our target of $1000 (a full workday worth of Snuggie wear), the donor who pushed the tally into the next bracket would get to nominate a challenge for Marty to complete in the Snuggie! Not only did we have a whole lot of laughs, we ended up raising $1500 to go towards offerings like special birthday packages and ‘distraction boxes’ to help kids through medical procedures.

Move for Movember

Instead of growing a mo for Movember, this year we encouraged our team members to get moving! Move for Movember is a spin-off of Movember, with the aim being to run/walk 60km in the month of November for the 60 men lost to suicide every hour around the world. To turn this into something we could do together as a team, we made our goal to collectively cover 60km on a single day. So on Thursday 28 November, we hosted ‘60K In A Day’. Team members pledged their distances ahead of the day and Luminary agreed to contribute $10 for every kilometre completed over 60km, plus another $10 on behalf of everyone who submitted a photo of their efforts. Together we walked, ran and swam 137.54km. Luminary contributed $950 to our 60K in a Day campaign and, together with all of our team’s fundraising efforts over the month, we raised over $1600.

Jodie O’Shea House - Bali

In Bali, we continued to support our partner charity, Jodie O’Shea House. The facility is home to around 100 children ranging in age from six months to 19 years. It was established in 2005 in memory of Australian woman and Bali bombing victim Jodie O’Shea. Our team made two visits to Jodie O’Shea House during the year, bringing donations of food, toys and essential items. We also provided the kids with our old computers to support their ongoing education. 

Food For Families

Every year in December we run a donation drive to gather non-perishable food items and toiletries for those in need. Our donation drive is well underway for 2019 and will once again be going to Uniting’s Food For Families Christmas Appeal. Last year, between donations from Luminary and individual team members, we managed to fill four whole grocery boxes. We’re aiming to do at least that again this year to brighten up Christmas for families doing it tough. 

All the best for 2020

As well as running these charity events, we also had the good fortune to work with many fantastic charities and not-for-profit organisations throughout the year. As the year draws to a close and we prepare to take a break, we wish all our charity clients and partners the very best for the new year, and thank you for the amazing work you do. We’ll be back with more wild and wacky charity initiatives in 2020!