The Nubba Open Gardens event held earlier this month has been hailed as a success, raising over $20,000 for the Young Crisis Accommodation Centre (YCAC). When tallied up earlier this week the final figure came to $20,788.91, with organisers congratulating the raffle winners and thanking the 18 sponsors who came on board. YCAC manager Kerri Palmer was full of praise for those involved; the garden owners, her staff, the Margaret House Refuge committee and all other volunteers and visitors. “We were really lucky in that a community member and organiser, Debbie Knapman, came up with the idea and approached us to see we’d be interested in being involved, and of course we jumped at the opportunity,” Ms Palmer said. “We feel that we've got a community that get behind us every time we have a fundraiser. “We're very grateful for that and that amount of money will make a really big difference to our organisation.” Kerri said the funding will remain in their area, which covers Boorowa, Harden, Temora, Cootamundra as well as their home base in Young. “We rely on our fundraising efforts to meet the gap because we are underfunded for what we actually do,” she explained. “We have funding that supports around 255 individuals a year coming through, but last year we saw 452 people through our doors. “YCAC provide case management support to anyone who is residing in crisis accommodation through our service, so this type of funding really allows us to expand that. “Without Margaret House and without those crisis accommodation options, there is actually nowhere within our entire service area that people can stay when they have nowhere else to go.” Guests were treated to gardens in Nubba, Murrumburrah and Wombat throughout the course of the day. The five gardens opened on the day were 'Sunshine Woods', 'Pilkena', 'Cooringle Cottage', 'Wyona' and 'Tumbleton. The raffle winners were Derryck Menere, Judith Buckley, Andrea Langfield, Ash Carrol and Lyn Callaghan.
