Heritage and People’s Choice Bank Charity Golf Day raises $50,000

4 December 2023

Participants at the annual Heritage and People’s Choice Golf Day have raised approximately $50,000 to help grassroots charity groups support people in need in the community. 

About 160 players took to Toowoomba’s City Golf Club last Friday (1 December) in the 26th edition of the annual fundraiser.

The event has now raised almost $1.1 million and assisted around 140 charity and community groups across its history.

This year’s golf day was notable as the first since the merger of Heritage Bank and People’s Choice Credit Union in March this year, which created Australia’s leading customer-owned banking organisation.

In keeping with the merged organisation’s national presence, the recipients of funds from this year’s event includes organisations from Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.

CEO Peter Lock said the Charity Golf Day was a fantastic example of the people-centric mindset that differentiated customer-owned banks from the listed bank sector.

“Our Charity Golf Day was started 26 years ago by a group of volunteer employees, simply because they wanted to help people in the community who were doing it tough,” Mr Lock said.

“Fast forward to today and it’s still organised and run by volunteer employees, and is still focussed on helping people in need.

“That’s what Heritage and People’s Choice is all about. We exist to serve our members and support the communities they are part of.

“For us, it’s not about maximising profit, but about doing good.”

Mr Lock said one of the key commitments made as part of the merger was to increase the level of the organisation’s community contributions moving forward. 

“The Charity Golf Day is an important part of that commitment,” he said.

“Holding this event each year is something that everyone at Heritage and People’s Choice takes great pride in, and something we hope to make bigger and better in future.

“I also want to thank our generous sponsors who support the event and our efforts to raise money for some truly worthwhile organisations.”

The six organisations sharing in the funds raised at the golf day are:

Achieve Australia – Disability accommodation provider from Western Sydney.

QCWA Goombungee – Community organisation based north of Toowoomba 

Touch of Hope – Logan-based grass roots charity providing programs that cater to the homeless, and those who are socially disadvantaged, poverty stricken or experiencing hard times.

HeartKids SA  - Supporting and advocating for people impacted by childhood heart disease in South Australia. 

Cancer Council SA - Charity working across all aspects of cancer in South Australia. 

Toowoomba Police Citizens Youth Club – Supporting activities for young people from the Toowoomba region.

PHOTO: 2023 Heritage and People's Choice Golf Day Committee (back, from left) Jan Johnson, Anne Cherry, Kris Willshire, Grant Graving, Russell Bianchi, (front, from letf) Peter Hanna and Sascha Jones.