Yass Can Assist was out raising money this weekend, setting up a street stall at the corner of Meehan and Comur Street.
The stall offered delicious baked goods, pickles, jams, plants, books and bric-a-brac for sale, whilst also selling raffle tickets for a major prize of $100 restaurant or takeaway gift voucher from Yass Soldiers Club as well as secondary wine and chocolate prizes.
President of Yass Can Assist Clr Geoff Frost said the stall is just a small part of the work being done to raise funds by the Yass Can Assist volunteers.
“This is just part of what we do, we go to every Murrumbateman market, we go to Binalong markets, we do all sorts of things to raise money, and we’ve got a lot of really good people who help us as well.”
“All the funds are raised locally and spent locally,” he said.
Geoff estimates Yass Can Assist help roughly 50 local cancer patients every year, which costs anywhere between $60-70,000.
“We support local cancer patients in the Yass Valley and near surrounds, and we provide them with financial assistance.”
“Essentially, it’s a special community service of living in Yass that you get this extra cover if you are unlucky enough to get cancer,” he said.
Yass Can Assist aims to cover the extra expenses that Medicare can’t and, in particular, the hefty costs associated with having to travel to Canberra for appointments.
“Medicare is pretty good, but it’s not perfect, and we try to fill in those gaps.”
“We provide funding for travel which is quite a lot because people do lots of trips to Canberra, for pharmacy, for doctors’ fees, scans and all sorts of things,” he said.
Along with their own fundraising, Yass Can Assist is helped by many other community groups within the Yass Valley.
“Men’s Shed gave us $500, which was fantastic; we are hopeful the Cruisers Car Club will give us $500 from their swap meet.”
“The Yass Roos are going to have a special day for us; the Binalong Brahmans are going to have a special day for us.”
“We are so grateful other people are giving us a hand because we just couldn’t do it, and we’ve got all these really hard-working people here who come out every week or every couple of weeks,” he said.
The beauty of donating money to Yass Can Assist is the minimal overhead costs.
“We’ve got almost zero overheads.”
“98% of funds raised end up in the pocket of a local cancer patient,” he said.
Yass Can Assist also has a new yellow trailer which will be driven around with them to every event they attend, and Geoff was encouraging businesses and organisations to pay to put their logo on the trailer.
“We’d like local businesses to put their logo on there, and we’ll charge them a hefty fee to do so,” he said with a chuckle while pointing towards the Yass Can Assist yellow trailer.
You can donate to Yass Can Assist anytime at https://www.givenow.com.au/canassistyassvalley
Max O’Driscoll
