By Aaron Cordy
CHECKING out the Christmas lights is one of the highlights of the festive season. Seeing the Santa displays on the houses is a delight for the young and the young at heart. One local family has turned the wonderful tradition into a way to raise money for kids with cancer.
Whilst handing out lollies and icy poles to families who had stopped to see their Christmas display, Bec and Tony Joyce of 2 Wanderers Lane Kialla, saw an opportunity to raise a little money for charity. Last year the pair, along with their children began accepting gold coin donations for icy poles with the money going to the Kids Cancer Project.
“We’ve been doing the Christmas lights for the last six years. Just started pretty small, and then we went around one year. Our tradition was Christmas Eve to go around having a look at all the displays. And there was always a Santa out the front of at least one house. We went around, and that one year, there didn’t happen to be a Santa out the front. So, I swore from that day on that I’ll be the Santa out the front on Christmas Eve,” said Tony.
“We’re just handing out lollies to all the cars coming past. And over the years, as it’s got bigger, we’ve handed out more and more lollies, and word of mouth has got out about the displays and the rest of the neighbours got involved as well. With it growing and growing over the last few years, we decided last year that it’s probably a good opportunity of making the most of having that much foot traffic coming past that we decided to look into supporting a charity.”
Despite the bad weather in Shepparton last Christmas Eve, the Joyce’s raised an incredible $4,862.70 in total. Not willing to rest on their laurels of last year’s fantastic effort, Tony and Bec want to go even better this year and are encouraging everyone to come down and check their display at 2 Wanderers Lane Kialla and donate a few dollars to the Kids Cancer Project. There will be a QR code plus tap and go, for larger donations, along with cash. This year Santa will appear on Saturday, 21 and Christmas Eve from 8pm.
“I enjoy the fact that the whole neighbourhood gets involved. It brings everyone, the whole community together at Christmas time. As you can see, everyone spends their time out the front having conversations with all walks of life coming past and being able to promote a decent charity along the way,” said Tony.
