Hedge fund manager, John Hempton has created a charity auction on eBay, targeted at Sydneysiders, to raise money for the Great Lakes Women's Shelter, which offers crisis accommodation in both Forster and Tuncurry.
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Up for grabs is a day with John enjoying a prawn run and fishing on the Manning River, with professional Indigenous fishers, Ray Saunders and his son, filmmaker Grant Saunders, whose documentary Teach a Man to Fish debuted at the Sydney Film Festival in 2018.
John is the founder of Bronte Capital, a company that manages more than US$100 million dollars for investors including former Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
Announcing the auction on his blog on October 10, John said he discovered the shelter earlier in the year when he was donating to some women's shelters that were having a hard time as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He learned the Great Lakes shelter had been "devastated by the summer bushfires, and now the pandemic" and was "struggling, with local donations and fundraising way down."
He made a donation but had an idea for a charity auction, noting that in the United States it had become a trend for money managers to auction off lunch with them.
I uncovered old memories intertwined with a fishing story. It's how I learned the fishing business and in the process all the other things that are under the surface.
- Grant Saunders
Unsure about who would have lunch with him, he decided to sweeten the pot.
The key features of the prize include staying at the Boogie Woogie Beach House in Old Bar on Thursday night, October 29, dinner with some of the area's Biripi people and fishing with Ray and Grant on Friday, October 30.
John has already donated $10,000 to the shelter and the bidding started at $5000. On October 14 the bidding was up to $7100.
Bidding closes at 8pm on October 19.
The documentary film, Teach a Man to Fish follows the story of Grant Saunders returning home to the Manning after being away for more than half his life and using fishing as a way to reconnect with his father, my family, my country and my town.
Grant was the screenwriter and director. The film also had support from Screen Australia, Screen NSW and NITV.
"I uncovered old memories intertwined with a fishing story. It's how I learned the fishing business and in the process all the other things that are under the surface."
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