Junior Cherrypickers take the plunge

The Young Junior Rugby League Club have rallied together for MND Australia, raising an incredible $16,000 for the charity organisation. As part of their charity fundraiser, the Junior Cherrypickers initially had seven past and present club members put their hands up to take the plunge for the Big Freeze for MND if they reached their initial goal of $7000. However the event grew a lot bigger, with coaches and various community members putting their hands up to take the plunge for charity. Joining Hugh Gibson, Jesse Jewitt, Phill Coddington, Jess McInerney, Jayke Hogan, Kent Woods and Tim Bailey in taking the plunge were radio host David Quigley, Cherryatric Greg LeStrange, Carli Kemp, Matt Hoarder, Steve Shipp, Cil Maloney, Izzy Mesa, Shaun Brown and Daniel Woods, as well as Nayah Freeman. Young Junior Cherrypickers' Patricia Hunt said the fundraiser grew beyond what they were expecting and were initially hoping to just raise a couple of thousand for MND research which is why they started with two 100 clubs. This soon expanded to volunteers jumping aboard to take part in the Big Freeze dunk, with the club raising $1000 per person out of the original seven people who put their hands up to be dunked. This expanded out to other community members putting their hands up. Ms Hunt said they also partnered with Young North Public to host a mufti day on the first Friday of the school and dunking the school's support teacher Nayah Freeman who also serves as the reserve grade coach. The school's P and C also matched the money raised at the school's mufti day. The club started the morning on $13,000 raised already, and raised a further $3000 more on Saturday, due to donations and their raffle. The Young Junior Rugby League Club hosts a charity round every year, and this year they decided to support MND as they have had many families within the club who have been affected by the disease, Funds raised by the club were presented to the Young Branch of MND, with the money going to further research. Throughout the day, the Junior Cherrypickers also took to the field against Tumut. Looking forward to the remaining season ahead, Ms Hunt said their teams are looking strong, with almost all of their competitive teams qualifying for the finals rounds, depending on the results from the last three weeks, This weekend coming several teams will be playing in the Junee Schoolboys carnival. There are two rounds left in the normal season after that,