CLOSE TO $50,000 has been raised this year by the Junee community to assist with the retrofitting of fire sprinkler systems.
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The need for fire sprinklers in aged care facilities was a response by the NSW state government to the deliberately lit fire in Quakers Hill in Sydney in 2011.
This week the Junee Motor Club handed over $3000 from a raffle organised earlier this year.
It brings the total amount raised to $48,700.
President Kevin Longmore paid tribute to the club's members who sold tickets and community members who bought them.
"We've got a lot of thanks to give, without these people things just don't happen," he said.
Mr Longmore said it was thanks to donations from the GEO Group and Brendan Macaulay who donated the items raffled.
He said the club wasn't just raising money to fund their own activities but was involved in helping the community - donating funds to Cooinda Court and the Junee Hospital Auxiliary.
During the handover, publicity officer Toby Bowering threw down the challenge to other community groups to raise the vital funds needed to complete the retrofit.
"We'd like to see them match or beat this amount," Mr Bowering said.
He said the club jumped at the chance to help raise funds for the aged care facility when it was asked to pitch in.
Cooinda Court management committee president Patricia Butler said every little bit raised for the project - whether it was 10 cents or 10 dollars - helped.
"Thank you so much to the people who went and sold the tickets ... and the people who supported the raffle," she said.
Mrs Butler said Cooinda Court was important to the community as it meant elderly residents stayed in the town, and the community they loved.
"It's our duty to look after our elderly ... they looked after us when we were small and vulnerable," she said.
Mrs Butler said the fundraising effort had been an incredible example of the community's generosity and spirit to the town's younger residents.