SOURCE: The Bay Post
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RELATED CONTENT: Bucket list helps Batemans Bay deal with tragedy
Kaileigh Fryer was just 19 when she died in a car accident in Sydney last April.
The Malua Bay teen left behind a bucket list of 49 items in her journal and it was distributed at her funeral. That list has now inspired countless people around the world through a Facebook page which has almost 10,000 members.
Only eight of the 49 items on the bucket list remain uncompleted, but at least two of these are on their way to reality.
The following items remain unfulfilled: 2 - backpack South America on a motorbike, 10 - take a road trip with friends with only a small suitcase of clothes and a guitar, 24 - take a salsa class, 33 - sail around the Caribbean, 36 - open an orphanage, 38 - host a fundraiser, 39 - adopt a child and 46 - go to Carnivale in Rio.
Sunshine Bay’s Kaylene Nucifora is organising Kaileigh’s Bucket List Gala Fundraiser at the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club on February 21 which will tick off number 38.
“I know the family and I was touched by the tragedy and the story of the bucket list,” Ms Nucifora said.
“I realised no one had done anything like this for them and looked at number 38 and thought ‘we can do this’,” she said.
The fundraiser will feature auctions, raffles, lucky door prizes and entertainment.
“We really want the business community to get behind this by donating goods, and the rest of the community to support it as well,” she said.
Pre-purchasing tickets at the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club is essential and for more information email bucketlistfundraiser@gmail.com or call Ms Nucifora on 0414 282 821.
Despite the ambitious nature of number 36, plans to make it happen are under way. Carroll College students Samantha Smith, Mikaela Eltherington and Renee Tyrrell are running The Smiling Angels Project, which is raising funds to establish an orphanage for children of AIDS victims in South Africa. They are plan to travel to Kwazulu Natal in South Africa in December to build and establish the orphanage.
“So far we've raised $2,865.86, plus around $100 for small stalls we've held over the last few months that hasn't yet been deposited into the bank,” Ms Eltherington said.
Christmas Day was changed for ever for Michelle Fryer, Kaileigh’s mother, after she and her three daughters spent Christmas Day 2014 helping other people, and carrying out number 44 on the list - host a Christmas dinner for the homeless.
Michelle and daughters Stacey, 24, Courtney, 13, and Christie, 11, volunteered at the Exodus Foundation’s Christmas Lunch at Ashfield in Sydney.
“It was fantastic and gave us a new meaning of Christmas,” Mrs Fryer said.
“We were in the dessert tent and we were flat out from 8am to 5pm. The girls said ‘thanks very much it was the best Christmas Day ever’,” she said.
“For Christmas presents, the girls each received an Asher Foundation sponsorship package which educates a child for a year.”