It was straight to the steak for Daniel Winch, as he set off on a two-minute $500 grocery grab at Stoke New World last week.
Daniel won the grocery grab by buying a raffle ticket from his niece Atana Thate, 6, who was helping her school raise money for swimming lessons. While the grab came with a few rules; no more than two of the same item, and no alcohol or Lotto tickets, 120 seconds allowed Daniel to make his way round the whole perimeter of the supermarket, filling an entire trolley in the process.
After nabbing steak, a leg of lamb, chicken and bacon, it was off to the milk and deli where a couple of cakes were added to the pile. Cheese, butter and sugar promptly followed before the gluten free section was targeted.
Daniel went in with a gameplan and seemed happy with his haul as staff unloaded it to go through the checkout.
Stoke School student Atana also won a $50 New World voucher for selling the winning ticket.
The four tickets Daniel purchased helped the school raise $8500 towards their fundraising target of $26k, to provide four weeks of swimming lessons to each of its 203 pupils.
Atana’s nan was on-hand watching the chaos unfold and said it was made all the more special because Daniel was grabbing to help out Atana’s mum, who is facing four surgeries in Australia fighting a dibilitating disease.
New World owner Brendon Rae says they were all too happy to help local kids learn to swim.
“Stoke School [PTA] approached us about the need for some support fundraising for the swimming programme. I guess, for us to donate $500... it’s reasonably significant amount of money. But it’s supporting them.”
He wasn’t sure Daniel would easily be able to grab the full $500 worth in just 120 seconds, but as the register climbed to $745, Brendon allowed Daniel to keep the lot.
PTA chairperson Carole Rendle, who was also tasked with pushing the trolley for the 7.30am grocery dash, says staff from Richmond Aquatic Centre will come in to give their students two weeks of swimming lessons in Term 4 and the other two weeks in Term 1 of next year.
The next big fundraiser to help get them closer to their target will be the school gala on Saturday, 9 November.
