It’s hard to imagine that a bit of good-natured ribbing back in 2001, when a dealer boldly presented Seeley International founder and Executive Chairman, Mr Frank Seeley AM with a bottle of aptly-named Braemar scotch, would turn into an annual fundraising effort that has helped thousands of children around the world.
The ever-resourceful Mr Seeley decided to turn the inexpensive bottle of scotch – which happens to share its name with Seeley International’s award-winning range of Braemar air conditioners – into an opportunity to do good, selling it as a prize at its annual dealer conference fundraiser.
The unopened bottle has been re-gifted back every year since, and after some very spirited bidding between the Seeley International dealer network this year, a total of $209,954 was raised – with the winning bidders being a tie between dealers Polyaire, South Australia and HVAC Consolidated, Victoria.
“This $10 bottle of scotch has become written into the folklore of Seeley International, and while I don’t expect its taste would have improved over the course of time, it has now raised more than $1.6m,” Mr Seeley said.
“The monies are divided between a charity that supports Australian children and an initiative that helps children in the local community where we happen to be having our annual conference,” he said.
“This year we will be supporting the organisation Samaritan’s Purse, and our efforts will assist the 20,000 children who have escaped war and persecution in the Middle East and Central Asia and are now living in refugee camps scattered across mainland Greece and its surrounding islands.”
In keeping with tradition, the Everglades Fund created by Frank and wife Kathy will match the dealer donations dollar for dollar, with this year’s other recipient again being Variety – The Children’s Charity. The donation will help provide individuals and organisations with access to a range of special needs equipment, including wheelchairs, vocal output speech devices, prosthetic limbs, play equipment, Liberty Swings and Sunshine Coaches.
“I remain amazed at the generosity shown by the Seeley International dealer network, and this demonstrates that everyone can play a role in supporting the wonderful work of chosen charities,” Mr Seeley said.
Last year’s auction proceeds were used to improve facilities of the Batiri and Malomalo primary schools in Fiji as well as support Variety – the Children’s’ Charity.
Other previous charities supported through the popular initiative have included the Leukaemia Foundation and Samaritan’s Purse in Australia, Macedonia and China, the Klong Toey Community Centre in Bangkok, the TLC Orphanage in South Africa, Compassion Indonesia, Hmong refugee children in Vietnam and Silky Oaks Children’s Haven in Queensland.