Car valued at more than $30,000 to be auctioned at Albany’s Longest Lunch for Ronald McDonald House Charities

Albany’s Longest Lunch will feature its biggest auction item yet after a local car dealership donated a brand new SUV valued at more than $30,000 to the charity fundraiser. The annual lunch for Ronald McDonald House Charities will be held at Albany Golf Club next Friday, featuring a menu created by internationally acclaimed Fraser’s at Kings Park chef Chris Taylor. Ronald McDonald House in Perth offers free “home-away-from-home” accommodation and support for seriously ill children and their families. McDonald’s Albany owner Darren Tyrrell said 295 families from Albany had used Ronald McDonald House while undergoing treatment in Perth over the past decade. All funds raised during Albany’s Longest Lunch will be donated to the charity. “The lunch is really just about raising money, as best as we can,” Mr Tyrrell said. “We’re overwhelmed by the generous support of the community and the businesses within our community and Albany World of Cars have just been so generous in providing this amazing auction item for us.” Headlining the charity auction will be a red Mazda CX-3 Maxx Sport donated by Albany World of Cars, with every cent going to RMHC. Albany World of Cars’ Claudio Mattiaccio said the donation of the car was part of the dealership’s broader community-giving initiative. “We’ve got to be mindful that Albany World of Cars, in one form or another, has been around since 1973,” he said. “And we’ve been supported by the local community all that time, so really it’s a nice gesture I think to repay to the local community, particularly to Ronald McDonald House.” Mr Tyrrell said the car retailed at about $32,000 and he expected it to reach that price or “maybe a little more” during the auction. Another big-ticket item up for auction is a trip for two people to Broome, including a Horizontal Falls tour and three nights’ accommodation. Albany mother Nadine Shepherd will be the main speaker at the event, where she will outline how Ronald McDonald House has supported her family as her son, Ned, both pictured, received medical treatment in Perth. Ms Shepherd told the Advertiser she was “blown away” by the support her family received from RMHC when her son was five and again when he was 13. She said she was looking forward to being able to give back to the charity through her involvement in Albany’s Longest Lunch. “I’ve been going to the longest lunch for a few years now, I feel it’s a really worthy charity,” she said. “And it’s just so important to the people of Albany, because you never know when you’re going to need it, and if you’ve got children that need it, it’s pivotal.” Last year’s Albany’s Longest Lunch raised $50,000 for RMHC, and Mr Tyrrell said he hoped the 2022 edition would raise “at least $85,000”. “The support given to our community by Ronald McDonald House is just incredible,” he said. “It costs nothing to use the facilities, and it’s just so comforting to know the facilities are there for those families in their time of need.” For tickets, visit bit.ly/3BDpF9q.