People want to help, they just need the vehicle to do it.
In 2019, The Merry Muster came about from a personal desire to do something tangible for drought, bushfire and flood affected regions of QLD. Coming from the country myself, I felt helpless at how cruel the drought especially has been and the toll it has taken on regional communities. Me simply crying at images on the TV was not going to help, so I came up with a simple idea. Why don't we take our Christmas shopping dollars and spend them out in an area that desperately needs some love, instead of here in the city. And so The Merry Muster was born.
That first year I hired a bus and took 57 people out to Dalby and Bell in the Western Downs region of QLD where we spent the day enjoying country hospitality, shopping our hearts out, donating to a local charity, listening to the locals stories of hardship and injecting over $17,000 into the region in one day.
In 2020 year the event had a growth spurt. On 5 Dec we took 5 buses departing Brisbane and 2 from the Gold Coast (350 people) out to the Southern Downs region, visiting the towns of Warwick and Stanthorpe. We injected just over $114,000 into the regions economy in that one day plus took out 35 cubic metres of donations for 3 local charities and gave 2 cash donations to worthy groups helping out their community.
Thanks to our 500 amazing guests on 8 buses in 2021, The Merry Muster injected a total of $156,948 into the Scenic Rim and Granite Belt regions and made a donation of $5000 to rural mens health charity "‘Are You Bogged Mate?’.
Our events aim to be a fun day out that is both good for the soul of our guests and for those who feel they are forgotten by the city in regional areas.
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Kristin Bonner
Founder