Bandag Manufacturing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Australia, this year raised $7,400 for the Leukaemia Foundation through its annual rugby jersey raffle.
According to Bandag, dealers from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Noumea who attended the company’s annual conference in Auckland, New Zealand took part in the raffle doubled the previous year’s donations.
said the small group of independent dealers and employees have transformed the jersey into a fundraising tradition.
“We’ve got a really nice group of independent dealers doing the right thing by the environment through retreading tyres, but they also like to do the right thing by the community by giving back to charity,” said Greg Nielsen, Bandag General Manager Retread Business. “The raffle is a tradition that started back in 2003, and over the last 11 years, has raised more than $30,000 for various charities.”
The jersey incites friendly rivalry among the stores, with the New Zealand dealers particularly keen to take it back to their home soil. However, in keeping with tradition, the jersey is returned at the same time each year for the charity raffle.
Bandag’s close-knit dealer network chose to support the Leukaemia Foundation in 2014 following the loss of one of its own members to blood cancer this year.
“Everyone at the conference dug deep this year and a couple of people donated $1,000 each. The total raised was an incredible effort from our small group,” Nielsen said.
The winner of this year’s raffle, from Western Australia, gave the jersey to the QTR Toowoomba store to display in memory of their business partner for the next 12 months.