Tasmanian Craft Fair picks Royal Flying Doctor Service as 2017 charity

Tasmanian’s biggest craft fair, run by the Deloraine Rotary Club, will donate all the money raised from this year’s event to the RFDS. 

Tasmania Craft Fair director Tim Biggs said the fair wanted to give back to the RFDS.

“The craft fair was started with its primary purpose being to raise funds to give back to the community,” he said.

“We hope that our impact on the RFDS is two-fold, the first is through our donations, but also by providing additional awareness for the RFDS in support of their cause.”

At last year’s event, the fair raised about $15,000 for Tasmanian charity Giant Steps. 

"We will be hoping to get around that figure again this year. It’s a lot of money, but it’s a lot of work too,” Mr Biggs said. 

RFDS’s Tasmanian chief executive John Kirwan said the funds were greatly appreciated. 

“We are a charity, we are reliant on fundraising,” he said.

The money raised will be used to run the mobile dental care unit, which costs more than $30,000 to get up and running. 

“We have our dental program on the road now, the operation is paid for by the Commonwealth, but the capital costs, like buying the equipment, we have to fundraise ourselves,” Mr Kirwan said. “We’re about to put a second team on the ground, when we recruit our first dentist, and that will allow us to run two teams in remote areas of Tasmania.”

Mr Kirwan said the need for dental care was significant, with plans for the program to soon start servicing all members of rural communities. 

“It’s the only part of the body not funded by state funding and Medicare. In rural and remote areas getting access to a service is the key issue,” he said. 

The RFDS’s simulator will be on show at the craft fair, along with its mobile dental care unit. 

“Our dental program will be there so people can understand what we actually use the money for,” Mr Kirwan said. 

The Tasmanian Craft Fair will be held at Deloraine on the November long weekend.