By Mandy Oakham
Local Rotarians have raised nearly $14,000 as a much-needed boost for motor neurone disease (MND) research.
The money was raised at a special dinner and auction organised by Rotary Club of Ocean Grove at Ocean Grove Bowling Club, which drew a crowd of more than 200 people.
Guest speaker was the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Kristen Hilton who paid tribute to local Rotarian and ex-Carlton player Maurie Fowler, who died from the disease in March last year.
Local media personality Ian Cover “couldhavebeen“ the star of the show as the master of ceremonies but he had a rival in the star stakes in local real estate identity Peter Molloy as auctioneer and the double act ensured the big bids kept coming all night.
One of the organisers of the fund raiser, John Calnin, said the response from people had been “overwhelming“.
“It was a terrific sucess and we are so happy with the contribution we can make to the future of this research,“ John said.
“ We thought we would have Maurie with us a lot longer than we did but at least now we have made a contribution to the battle to beat this terrible disease.
“The only trouble with having such a successful fund raiser is how can we top this one next year?“
