Media Release

Merimbula and Far South Coast club community rallies for Piper

The Merimbula RSL and Far South Coast Clubs NSW community has rallied to raise almost $12,000 for a young employee in a fight for her life at the Sydney Children’s Hospital.

Merimbula RSL waitress Piper Mills, aged 17, was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma in May and has been in hospital for treatment ever since with her Mum Kristy Pyle, who also works at the club.

Secretary-manager Michael Mutsch said everyone was ‘blown away’ by the response to the Piper’s Fight raffle.

“When Piper first started treatment the club put donation tins out to help with costs but with such a long road ahead for Piper, we thought a raffle would be a way of raising a few extra dollars,” he said.

“We knew there would be a lot of support but we couldn’t believe how generous everyone was.”

Within a few days over 20 local businesses had donated prizes and when the RSL shared details of the Piper’s Fight Raffle on Facebook, the response continued to grow. More businesses donated prizes, the phones rang hot and people streamed into the club to buy tickets, with many purchasing full books.

“It all came together in a few weeks and we ended up with 33 incredible prizes. When we shared the raffle on Facebook people were so supportive and straight away they were wanting to know how to buy tickets. We had full books of 50 tickets walking out the door, people were just so generous.”

For the Friday night draw RSL staff dressed in piper’s favourite colour pink and adorned the raffle area for the big crowd who came.

“It was a wonderful night, and a lot of people came out to be part of it. All our staff dressed in pink and the draw had a really special feeling about it. In total we raised $9628.30, which included proceeds from the July 29 Friday night raffles and the donation tins around the club,” Michael said.

The Far South Coast Clubs NSW region has donated a further $2000.

“We are just pleased to be able to help in one small way to make things a little bit easier for Piper and her Mum who are both valued employees and part of the club family,” Michael said.

Michael said the response had provided a major boost to the morale of Piper and Kristy.

“Kristy says if her and Piper were here they would go around and give everyone a big hug. She says words don’t begin to describe how appreciative they are.”

End of release