Spring open garden festival raises $55,000 for Albany Community Hospice

This year’s Albany open garden festival has smashed its previous fundraising records bringing in $55,000 for the Albany Community Hospice.

The popular biannual event attracted hundreds of garden enthusiasts from across the South West over two weekends in October and November.

The fundraiser helps the Albany Community Hospice to meet its annual fundraising target of $250,000 needed to keep the palliative care service running.

Record numbers flocked to seven stunning private gardens which opened their gates for the cause, with up to 300 people visiting each garden per day.

The inaugural sundowner event held at the beautiful Hunton Road Hideaway proved a winning addition to the festival program.

Albany Community Hospice Open Garden Festival co-ordinator Lyn Lutley said the festival drew an “overwhelming response” and was making a name for itself among WA’s green thumbs with garden groups visiting from Geographe and Bridgetown.

“The event is run and organised by volunteers and it takes an army of people at each garden to man the gates,” she said.

“On behalf of Albany Community Hospice we are extremely grateful to our community for their support towards the community owned facility.

“We’re continually overwhelmed by the generosity of our community, our sponsors, our donors and our volunteers who assist in all sorts of ways by helping this event to take place.”