A thankyou dinner for Northern construction icon Greg Green is understood to have raised about $175,000 for motor neurone disease.
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The prominent building surveyor was diagnosed with MND about six months ago, prompting industry colleagues to organise The Green Gala fundraiser.
All 350 tickets to Saturday's event sold by word of mouth, and the same generosity that saw businesses donate $30,000 of auction items flowed on into the evening.
Organising committee chairman Andrew Goelst said every auction item sold for at least double its recommended retail price, and some fetched four or five times their value.
"Everyone left a better person for the night. Everyone was built up and encouraged," Mr Goelst said.
"People are saying it's a night unlike anything they've experienced and to raise the funds we did ... it was quite something to behold, a really amazing thing to be a part of."
A 68-year-old father-of-two, Mr Green has fingerprints on virtually every major Launceston building project completed this century.
Chester Bullock, who helped organise the event and gave Mr Green his first job as a private surveyor, said the night had brought many to tears while maintaining a celebratory energy.
"It shows how generous the community is, but it shows what an icon within the community Greg is," he said.
Both organisers praised guest speaker Rosie Clark, a Launceston-based MND researcher.
The Menzies Research Institute post-doctoral research fellow said it had been inspirational to see the community supporting a family in the midst of an MND diagnosis.
"We spend a lot of our time in laboratories and we're kind of tucked away, but it's fantastic to see and meet people who your research will impact one day," Dr Clark said.
"Science is built on the shoulders of many and it's not just our researchers who are important for that. It's the communities who are involved in raising funds."
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