Gallery | Mooroopna Junior Football Club’s ‘The Big Dunk’ MND fundraiser makes a splash

By Liam Nash

Jun 5, 2024

Jett Smith, dressed as Bailey Smith, goes under during The Big Dunk event. Photo by Megan Fisher

Mooroopna Junior Football Club’s ‘The Big Dunk’ event made a big, big splash on Sunday.

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The fundraiser for Motor Neurone Disease, which claimed the life of well-loved Shepparton woman Karen Gladigau in February 2024, went off without a hitch as a healthy crowd gathered to watch those brave enough to take the plunge into icy waters.

Sunday’s event raised a total of $7576.04 and ran “really, really well” according to organiser Michelle Marsters, a friend of Gladigau, to which the day was dedicated.

“I’m amazed at how many people actually turned up for the event — so many people within the community, not necessarily just from the junior football club, but also the senior football club and other general community-minded people,” she said.

“We’ve raised over $7500 from the event; half of that will go to the MND for the merchandise that was sold and the other half will go to Karen’s memory page.

“The kids had a lot of fun and given it’s the first time we had ever done it, we didn’t really have high expectations or know what we were going to achieve, so to get $7500 is just amazing.

“Shepparton Bears, they were really good supporting it as well and we’re definitely going to partner up with them in the future to make it bigger and better again.”

News photographer Megan Fisher was in attendance to catch the action.