By 11.30pm on Friday, the community raised a total of $116,113 compared to about $98,000 last year.
Echuca Lions Club secretary Howard Brettig expects that number to grow over the next few weeks.
“Last year, by the end of the month, we’d gotten to about $116,000, and I know we still have some pretty big donations coming in,” he said.
“We won’t have a final figure until the end of the month, but everyone should be pretty pleased that we’ve already raised more money than ever before.”
Mr Brettig said it was amazing seeing the community dig deep into their pockets to donate this year.
“The generosity is astounding to see every year. It just makes you feel good that we are a part of a community that wants to help,” he said.
“There must have been 40 small businesses that all contributed, which is good. From 50 bucks to a couple of hundred dollars. It all adds up.
“You can spend a lot of money doing whatever, going to concerts or the Olympics or whatever, but supporting a local hospital charity is just a huge measure of the intent of the community, which I think is brilliant.”
Echuca CFA member Kirby Thompson said the brigade had a successful day, rattling tins and talking to community members on Thursday and Friday.
“It’s the Good Friday Appeal, so everyone’s a little more enthusiastic to help and donate. Everyone’s always in a good mood, and the kids really loved seeing us,” she said.
“I think the town really smashed it.”
Mr Brettig, who spent his Good Friday counting money at Echuca Workers, said volunteers got excited each time they passed another donation benchmark.
“I had to ring through what we’d collected every hour, and we had the TV on showing live what was happening,” he said.
“We could see where we were and we got to fourth (on the regional tally board) at one stage. It was pretty exciting.
“I thought last year was a special year. The expectations were that if we cracked a hundred thousand, we were doing well. So, the community far exceeded my expectations and generosity. It’s just excellent.”
Further ways the region can continue to support the appeal throughout the year are now being considered.
“We’re looking at having some events that the general community can get involved in because we haven’t done that previously,” he said.
“I’ve been talking with (organisers in) Melbourne to try and get that to happen.”
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