Easter has traditionally been Uniting AgeWell Strathdon Community resident Brian Griffin’s busiest time of year.
The long-term supporter of the Royal Children’s Hospital would spend the weeks leading up to Easter preparing for the Pied Pipers’ biggest fundraiser – the Good Friday Appeal.
While things have changed a lot for Brian since he first joined the Pied Pipers, his passion for the hospital and fundraising has never wavered.
Brian joined the Blackburn-based fundraising group, which was established in 1969, after an experience at the hospital in the mid-70s.
“My daughter had been in hospital for four or five days when she was only four or five years old and we were lucky to see some very skilled paediatricians and neurosurgeons,” he said.
“They were very good – very gentle and very good to her.
“I heard about the Pied Pipers so I thought I would see if I could fit in time to support them.”
In the early days, the Pied Pipers would coordinate door-to-door fundraising each year for the Good Friday Appeal, working from donated space in local businesses.
Brian would coordinate the door-to-door collections and supervise school efforts as a volunteer, and later as a committee member.
Eventually the group was donated some garden sheds and council land to set up a clubhouse of their own in Doncaster, where they still work today.
The Pied Pipers also sell the official Herald Sun Premiership Posters at the AFL Grand Final each year – something Brian routinely did.
“When I first started selling them, they cost the equivalent of 10c for a poster and now they’re up to $3 each,” he said.
“The last time Collingwood won the Grange Final we sold 45,000 posters on the day. We were rapt and had a nice bundle of money to give to the hospital.”
Last year alone, through their various fundraising efforts, the Pied Pipers raised more than $328,000 for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal. Its cumulative fundraising total has reached $8.077 million.
Brian said meeting the hospital staff and the families who benefited from the support made it all worth it.
“It’s the connection of talking to people who do these jobs – you feel very moved,” he said.
“That’s why I love it.”
In 1991, Brian was presented with an Honorary Life Membership to the Pied Pipers for ‘outstanding devotion and service’.
Now living in the Forest Hill aged care residence, Brian still attends the occasional fundraising event and planning day, and is happy to pass on his experience to the young guard