General News
11 April, 2026
Community digs deep for Good Friday Appeal
Rainbow and Jeparit have once again shown the strength of regional generosity, making valuable contributions to the 2026 Good Friday Appeal.
The 2026 Good Friday Appeal raised a final $25,268,485, with regional towns playing a major role through CFA collections, local events and community fundraising.
Among them, Rainbow raised $5,316.44 overall, while Jeparit raised $3469.82 overall in its milestone 50th year supporting the appeal.
Rainbow Good Friday Appeal area coordinator and Rainbow CFA brigade member Adrian Bennett said the town’s cash collection reached $4479.50, with pledges lifting the final total.
“We raised $4479.5 in cash on the day,” he said.
“The final tally of the town would be with pledges.”
Mr Bennett said fewer people were in town this year, which affected the collection effort.
“I think there was less people around this year due to the fuel crisis and everything,” he said.
Despite that, Rainbow CFA volunteers still covered a wide area with two vehicles on the road.
“The pumper tanker and the forward command vehicle, they all went out,” he said.
In Jeparit, organiser and CFA member Alicia Rosewall said volunteers focused their collection on the river and lake areas.
“We do a collection around the river and the lake,” she said.
Ms Rosewall said that local collection raised $1473.60, with other fundraising activities helping lift the overall result.
“From that collection, we got $1473.60,” she said.
She said proceeds from a fishing competition raffle also contributed to the final total.
“The fishing comp runs a raffle, and all those proceeds go to us,” she said.
Mr Bennett said the crews were out for about three hours and reached hard-to-access areas beyond town.
“We also collected money from Yaapeet,” he said.
He said the community’s support remained deeply appreciated.
“I reckon just a general thank you to the community for giving,” he said.
He added that the cause always comes first.
“Every cent counts when it comes to children’s hospital, like nobody ever wants to see a sick kid,” he said.
While Jeparit’s result was slightly down on last year, Ms Rosewall said the town still performed better than expected.
“Probably a little bit less than last year, as there weren’t as many campers, obviously due to the fuel crisis, people aren’t travelling, but we did a lot better than what we thought,” she said.
She said this year’s appeal was especially significant for the town.
“This is actually the 50th year that Jeparit Fire Brigade have been collecting for the Royal Children’s Hospital,” she said.
Ms Rosewall also thanked locals for continuing to support the cause.
“Just thank them for their generosity,” she said.
The results from Rainbow and Jeparit formed part of a much bigger regional effort, with area managers and volunteers across 229 regional Victoria and southern NSW towns organising door knocks, intersection collections and events.
The Good Friday Appeal also thanked its regional volunteers, 221 Area Managers, and partners, including the CFA, which raised $2,150,000 this year through more than 225 brigades.
Together, those efforts helped push the appeal to its record 2026 tally of $25,268,485.