The Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show listeners on GOLD 104.3 opened their hearts and showed their generosity as they raised more than $33,000 in just a few days to help two deserving children.
Listeners first raised enough money to secure a much-needed assistance dog for three-year-old Rheegan, but the generosity of Christian’s audience proved to have no bounds and after a series of wonderful twists and turns, they ended the week by also securing an assistance dog for another deserving child, 11-year-old Isabella.
It all started on Tuesday when Christian introduced listeners to grandmother Janelle who has been trying to raise the $20,000 needed to fund a Smart Pup for her grandson Rheegan who lives with autism.
Janelle has been holding sausage sizzles and working as an uber driver to raise the money, but despite her huge effort was still far from her fund-raising goal.
On behalf of Gold, Christian pitched in $10,000 and reached out to his amazing listeners to see if they could help get the other half.
After hearing Rheegan’s story, listeners flooded his fund-raising page with donations and in less than 24 hours the $20,000 target was reached.
While Melbourne was incredibly generous with their donations, one listener’s unconventional method of contributing stands out.
On Wednesday morning, Christian received a call from GOLD 104.3 reception, saying “There’s a man at reception, he says he’s got $10,000 for you.”
The ‘Hero in Fluro’, also known as Patrick the carpenter, stopped by GOLD 104.3 with an envelope containing $10,000 cash, money from his 30 years as a gold prospector that he decided to donate to the cause.
With the $20,000 for Rheegan’s pup already raised, the $10,000 would be used to ‘pay it forward’ for another family who need a smart pup.
The GOLD team decided to pay it forward to one of the first people who donated early in the week, 11-year-old Isabella, who has Type 1 Diabetes, and was saving for her own Smart Pup but decided to donate the $612 she had raised to Rheegan.
With $10,000 towards her pup already donated, Christian again put to call out to his listeners and within 20 minutes they had raised enough money to also fund Isabella’s Smart Pup.