Katanning’s generosity to aid MSWA
MSWA CEO Melanie Kiely offered her heartfelt thanks to Katanning Rotary Club’s Treasurer Cameron Taylor and his wife Fiona Taylor for the Club’s choice to name MSWA as the 2023 major beneficiary of their annual fundraiser for the second time, the first in 2018.
For a regional Club with around 25 members, Katanning Rotary Club has been going above and beyond for many years to give back to those in need through their impressive fundraising efforts.
While they conduct smaller fundraisers throughout the year, their annual major fundraising event is an international dinner which has become a highlight in the town’s social calendar, with over 200 people attending and digging deep to support their chosen cause for the year.
“Each year we decide on a dedicated main recipient of our fundraising efforts which is usually determined by something that’s recently impacted people in our community,” said Cameron.
“Our annual international dinner major fundraiser gets the whole community together and we pick a different country and cuisine to celebrate each year as we have an extremely multicultural community.”
“In other years we’ve supported other organisations like the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Ronald McDonald House, and Cancer Council, while also divvying up the monies to community services like local schools, local aged care facilities, local youth activities, food banks and more.”
In any given year the Club can successfully raise around $35,000, which is spread across a whole range of different organisations. Of course, some of that goes back into the Club to enable them to continue and expand their fundraising efforts.
The decision to choose MSWA as the 2023 major beneficiary was close to Cameron’s heart as his wife Fiona was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2022.
“I personally have known a few people with MS over the years, there were a couple of people in our community back in 2017 and that’s when we first decided to donate to MSWA,” he said.
But it recently became very close to home with my wife’s diagnosis, and it was a unanimous Club decision to choose MSWA again for 2023.
“We know that a portion of the funds we donate goes into ongoing groundbreaking research and that’s really important to us; the medication my wife is on is fairly new and has been determined by her neurologist as the best treatment for her and we’re sure the funds available to MSWA contributed towards that research, knowledge, and ability to be able to target medication to the particulars of Fiona’s case.”
We extend our sincerest gratitude to the Katanning Rotary Club and the wider Katanning community for their generosity in choosing to support MSWA and the work we do to empower those living with a neurological condition.
