Rainbow Day, a nearly two-decade long Mudgee tradition has survived the onslaught of COVID and the raft of restrictions it brings, with the 2020 seniors at Mudgee High School eager to adapt to the changing world in a continuing effort to support local causes.
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One of the ways you can support Rainbow Day this year is to buy a serve of chips from Market Street Takeaway in Mudgee, which - along with the business also supporting St Matthews seniors - is donating 50 cents from every serve of chips purchased between 10am on Monday morning close of business on Saturday this week to the Rainbow Day tally.
The beneficiary of this year's fundraising is drought relief, though exactly which charity is undecided.
Mudgee High School captains, Alexis Gaffney and Ned Dickson said they're thankful so many local businesses have been on board with Rainbow Day support this year.
"Mudgee Bakery have been really helpful. We've done some barbecues at the football and they've fixed us up quite a bit with free bread. Harvey Norman, Bunnings and Perry Street Meats have been great too," Alexis said
One of the most visible ways you would know Rainbow Day is the roadside collection, which is still happening this year, albeit slightly modified.
"We're actually allowed to do it this year, we just have to wear masks and have hand sanitizer and we just can't do our concert that we usually hold at the end of the day," Alexis said.
Rainbow Day roadside collection is currently planned for the morning of Thursday, September 24.
While Ned and Alexis admitted it's been disappointing to have the COVID-19 pandemic happen in their senior year, they haven't let it stop them from representing Mudgee High School the best way they can.
"We haven't been able to represent Mudgee High School as we would have liked, but we had an opportunity to go and meet the Governor General in Sydney and represent that way, or like at the Anzac parade and that sort of stuff. We couldn't do any of that, which is disappointing. But we found other ways to show our leadership," Ned said.
Ned and Alexis said fundraising is trailing a fair bit behind previous years but said they hope the community rallies around the cause and raises a comparable amount to other years.
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