And the AREA Community Award goes to… Our charity home auction!
If donating 100% of the auction proceeds to the Good Friday Appeal wasn’t feel good factor enough, we are over the moon to announce that our Good Friday Appeal Charity House has been named the 2017 Annual REA (AREAs) Community Award winner.
Designed to recognise companies and individuals supporting not-for-profit organisations or initiatives in their local community, you can read more about the AREAs awards, and our finalist announcement here.
Henley's Casey Sampson, Elana Panayiotou and Mark Glenn accepting the AREA.
Home of the feel-good factor
Every year, Henley bands together with hundreds of trades and suppliers to build a very special home. This home is sold at a no reserve auction on Good Friday, with all of the proceeds donated to the Good Friday Appeal in support of the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). Over 45,000 children were admitted to the RCH in 2016, with over 90,000 treated in emergency and 255,000 attending specialist clinics. We believe all children deserve access to lifesaving care and ground breaking research and we’re proudly one of the biggest contributors to the RCH over the last 24 years.
Achieving heart-warming results
2017 saw the home sell for a whopping $627,500, which contributed to the overall Good Friday Appeal total - a record $17.6M. Over the past 24 years, Henley has directly donated $13.8M to the Royal Children’s Hospital through the GFA Charity Auction Home. Our partner Villawood Properties has been generously donating land to the initiative for 9 years. The 2017 home was located in Villawood's Armstrong community in Mt Dunneed.
Villawood's Rory Costelloe and Henley's Mark Glenn with the owners of the 2017 Good Friday Appeal Charity Home.
Impressing the impressive judging panel
With 17 judges on the AREAs panel, ranging from industry media to CEO’s and Directors of industry associations, we feel honoured that the Henley and Villawood Properties Charity Auction Home impressed the impressive judging panel. The house itself was the “Palace 38”, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, powder room and five separate living areas. It included Italian SMEG Appliances, Caesarstone benchtops and Brivis heating and cooling. It also drew on our entire team’s experience and time, with our team donating logistics from design and drawing, through to estimating and marketing, as well as over 400 trades and suppliers, bringing together our community to help the local community.
Community participation and planning celebrations for 2018
Over 1,000 people attended the charity auction day in 2017, and we hope with the award and increased awareness, we can get even more people along to the Good Friday Appeal Charity Home Auction in 2018, marking the very special occasion of the 25th anniversary. With plenty of value and unique inclusions, the charity auction home always represents a great value – and is for a great cause.
Philanthropy is part of who we are
We are very grateful for this award but receiving trophies has never been the intent of our directors. Philanthropy is simply part of what we do every day at Henley. Through the 24 years of support, 39 homes we’ve donated or the $13.8 million dollars raised, if we can help to save just one child’s life then it makes it all worth it.
