Sandhurst Football Netball Club members to rattle tins to raise funds for new QEO change rooms

The state government announced $100,000 for the $845,000 project in January.

Bendigo council will contribute $685,000, while the Sandhurst Football Netball Club is seeking to raise $60,000.

The club has raised more than $4000 for the new facilities since the start of the season, Cath Robertson said.

She said fundraising activities ranged from raffles and the sale of chocolates to barbecues and club events.

Mrs Robertson said committee members were trying to think of innovative ways to reach their target and to engage the broader community in the campaign.

“If we had 60,000 people donate $1 we’d be done,” she said.

Most of the support for the club’s fundraising efforts thus far has come from within its membership base.

Mrs Robertson said the club was aiming to raise $15,000 for new facilities by the year’s end.

Fundraising at the gate to Saturday’s match between Sandhurst and Castlemaine is part of the strategy.

SNFC is also reaching out to its supporters, including affiliated groups and organisations.

Mrs Robertson said the change rooms and facilities would be beneficial for athletes not just from SNFC, but for all the teams that played at the QEO.

“We’re doing it because it’s our home ground,” she said.

However, she said the aim was to make the facility more accessible and appealing to female athletes, in general.

Concerns Mrs Robertson raised in 2016 about the ‘primitive’ state of the facilities for women at the QEO sparked a campaign for new change rooms, toilets and running water court side for female athletes and umpires.

Support from the state government and the Bendigo council was met with excitement and enthusiasm.

Mrs Robertson said works to create two change rooms, unisex toilets and showers, a first aid and baby change facility and an umpires room in a vacant space at the back of the neighbouring Faith Leech Aquatic Centre would soon be underway.

This year’s finals season is expected to be the last to require makeshift change rooms at the QEO.

Works on a $1.5 million project including a new kiosk and toilet building, significant landscaping and the refurbishment of the QEO’s heritage gates is underway.

Entry to the oval is presently restricted to one entrance.

Those wishing to donate can do so to the SFNC Netball Facility Fund account – BSB: 633 000, Account number: 122 989 049.

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