Mike Goodluck, who owns the Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance McDonalds stores, has been humbled by his fellow store owners throughout Victoria and Tasmania.

“At short notice we changed our meeting venue to the Bellevue in Lakes Entrance so funds could be injected into our local economy,” Mike said.

Sixty people arrived last Mon-day and went to the Central Hotel, the Lakes Entrance RSL and the Lakes Sports and Community Club for dinner.

By Tuesday the number of par-ticipants had grown to 90 and they had an all day meeting at the Bellevue.

They were then bused out to the Waterwheel Tavern for a meal and entertainment from the Irish band, Seo Linn.

“We had a spectacular night out there, a few sore heads next day,” Mike said.

On Wednesday there was a bright and early fishing trip for some, 12 people played golf at Lakes Entrance Golf Club and 40 booked a Wyanga Park Winery cruise and lunch.

In the evening 25 people went on Peel’s Cruises Thunderbird for a cruise to Metung for dinner.

“On top of that many ladies were doing lots of shopping around town,” Mike said.

“The owners each pledged$1000 per store to be donated di-rectly to bushfire-affected areas.

Mike was allocated $20,000 which he chose to donate to the Lakes Entrance Fire Brigade, this was presented at the meeting on Tuesday.

“We also raised another $4000 from raffles and donations for hampers. We had purchased local products and planned to gift each owner a hamper, but they insisted on making a donation towards them,” Mike said.

Mike said is very proud of the generosity and friendliness the McDonald’s owners showed. The donations will now be distributed to outer lying fire-af-fected areas.

IMAGE: Steve Weidemann, Brad McMullen, Phil Loukes and Anthony Armistead, of Lakes Entrance CFA, accepting a cheque for $20,000, from Mike Goodluck (second from right). K228-4789