By Corey Everitt
2024’s Hills MND Big Freeze has been named the Event of the Year after starting as a family initiative with small goals to a day that united the hills and raised more than $100k for the fight against motor neurone disease.
Cardinia Shire Council’s Australia Day awards were held on Thursday 23 January had a strong lineup for Event of the Year with well-established events such as the Pakenham Show, Art Show Pakenham and the Cockatoo RSL in the mix.
However, it was the inaugural year of Hills MND Big Freeze which took the award.
Initiated by Emerald’s Stickland family, the event aimed to unite the hills suburbs around Fight MND’s Big Freeze 10.
Eva Stickland accepted the award on the night.
“It’s amazing. I’ve put in so much effort into this event,” she said.
“It takes a whole community, friends and family to get together for an event like this. It really
shows who you can rely on.”
Her father Matt Stickland, who has lived with MND for a decade, and her mother Sarah Stickland attended previous Big Freeze events at places like the Garfield Hotel where they thought something similar could be produced back home.
It started as a small event with the goal of raising a few thousand.
Quickly, the event accelerated into a whole community affair and by the time it came to the big day in June 2024 at the Paradise Valley Hotel, there were over two thousand locals in attendance.
The final fundraising tally totalled $113,000.
“It shows how much my dad’s impact has made on people. It shows how much he
inspires people. It shows the level of commitment he has to raising funds. It’s all we can try to
do,” Eva said.
The success of the event goes to the broader efforts to raise awareness about the disease that has affected the Stickland family and countless others.
“People understand what other people are going through when it comes to motor neurone disease,” Eva said.
“My dad’s had it for 10 years now and we didn’t know anything about it when we first started.
“Now it’s just huge, everyone knows about it.”
