LAUREN Fisher had hoped to raise a couple of hundred bucks for victims of the Grampians bushfires through a sausage sizzle in front of the Gordon General Store, which she owns.
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But by mid-afternoon on Australia Day Ms Fisher and her team of half a dozen sausage sizzlers were closing in on the $1000 mark and still going strong.
The barbie was supposed to be wrapped up at about 3pm, but it appeared likely to stretch into dinner.
At 4pm the team was up to $888.15 and there were still people pulling over for a feed.
“A group of us said we should have a barbie for Australia Day and I thought: 'Why not make it a fundraiser'?” Ms Fisher said.
“We originally planned to do it for three hours. The first hour was quiet and we were worried it might be a fizzer but the next two hours it was chaos.
“It got quiet again just before 2pm but, then as we were thinking of packing up, it cranked up all over again.
“We would have been happy with $200 but the response was amazing. We had a real mix of people, from locals to some who had seen we were doing it on Facebook.”
Ms Fisher said, regardless of how many more snags they sold, the Gordon General Store would make sure the figure made four figures.
She said she had spoken with members of the Gordon Fire Brigade who indicated there was likely to be a disaster relief line at some point.
“We can't just hand over $900. We have to make it a thousand,” she said.