The Tallangatta Football Netball Club and wider community have raised $7800 for Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision through their fundraising round with Kiewa.
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The idea was born out of Paul O’Reilly’s connection to Nick Riewoldt’s sister, having fought aplastic anaemia alongside her.
Mr O’Reilly said he was overwhelmed by the support the cause received on Saturday.
“We always get a good crowd with these two clubs, but I would say this has certainly pumped up the crowd, there could be another 50 people here,” he said.
“The support of the locals had been really good.”
Mr O’Reilly’s daughter Jess co-ordinated the fundraiser and said her expectations to raise a couple thousand dollars through a raffle and auction were completely blown out of the water.
“We completely sold out of all the merchandise from Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision and we sold so many raffle tickets we had to buy more books,” she said.
“It was really nice to see – all of the Kiewa girls had purple ribbons in their hair.
“We had a huddle at the start of the game and talked about how dad has fought for the past couple years, we can fight for this game.”
Ms O’Reilly also received numerous inquiries about the bone marrow registry.
“One lady put in an extra donation; she said her partner was about to have a transplant,” she said.
Mr O’Reilly hoped the event would return, if not for the same cause, in some form of fundraiser.
“The talk is that Nick Riewoldt might retire and he’ll ramp up things with the foundation,” he said.
“Our intent will be to run this fundraising round annually.”