The Pied Pipers has been one of the key volunteer groups that support the Good Friday Appeal to raise money for the Royal Children’s Hospital. Next year they celebrate a milestone – their 50th year of fundraising.

It’s a small group, with a core membership of about 25, but its numbers swell to hundreds of volunteers for its main fundraising events – tin rattling at intersections on Good Friday and selling AFL premiership posters on Grand Final Day. The group has raised more than $8 million since it was formed in 1969.

Founding member Margaret Lee, 78, remembers the first meeting at the Tower Hotel in Hawthorn when a group of “like-minded people” decided to form the social and fundraising club they called the Pied Pipers.

Since then Mrs Lee has only missed one Appeal and she still regularly catches up with several other founding members on a social basis. One of them, Michael Gainger, continues to coordinate the Pied Pipers’ schools program across 13 eastern suburbs secondary colleges.

Reminiscing about her involvement with the group, Mrs Lee, attributes much of the Pied Pipers’ early media profile to her career in TV advertising – and where she lived.

For five years, she boarded with AFL legend Lou Richards and his wife Edna and says they encouraged her work with the Pied Pipers and introduced her to journalists, who were instrumental in the development of the premiership poster project. 

Today, the Pied Pipers continue led by president Nicole Brogden. Although she’s been involved for nearly 18 years, the cause has become more personal in recent years with both her children now regular patients at the RCH to monitor their cystic fibrosis.

Ms Brogden is one of the youngest on the committee and is very keen to attract more young people to the group.

“We would love to get some fresh new faces with new ideas,” Ms Brogden said. “People who are up-to-date with social media, people who want to drive the club.”

Working in the counting room at the Good Friday Appeal is a real family affair for Chris Tyrrell and his three sons. Chris, 74, first joined the counting team more than 50 years ago and his sons, now aged in their 40s, came onboard when they were just in their teens.

“They started in the phone room, running messages and helping out, because they were too young to be in the counting room,” Chris said.

Now the four work side by side counting the money that is brought in to the collection centre by Pied Piper groups. For Chris, the impetus to volunteer came from colleagues in the National Australia Bank who were involved. He said he wanted to do something to help the Appeal and was encouraged by his colleagues.

“Now it’s in the kids’ blood – and I’m sure when their kids are old enough they’ll come in too,” Chris said.

For middle son, Martin, the commitment was particularly evident this year. Working as a sound engineer for the popular musical Aladdin, which was showing in Brisbane, he flew in to Melbourne on Good Friday morning to be part of the family volunteering exercise.

Another stalwart on the Pied Pipers counting team is Jeanette Barton, who first volunteered as a 17-year-old in 1974. She has often worked with the Tyrrells over the years. 

Like Chris, Jeanette remembers the days when all the counting was done manually and all the tallies had to be balanced before the counters went home some time after midnight. These days, after the manual sorting of notes, a machine makes quick work of the counting and many of the volunteers are home in time to catch the final tally on the Channel 7 telecast.

Jeanette also has a personal reason that drives her commitment to the appeal – her young daughter was one of the first children to have a hole in her heart fixed at The Royal Children’s Hospital. The story featured on the front page of the Herald Sun in 1994.

If you would like to volunteer with the Pied Pipers for the Good Friday Appeal, find out more about their involvement on their website. 

Few know more than Leon and Peter Duncombe just how far the Royal Children’s Hospital fundraiser has come. Leon Duncombe is one of the longest serving volunteers in the money counting room at the Good Friday Appeal, clocking up 65 years this year while son Peter is in his 45th year.

Leon said that although he really enjoyed coming to the Appeal he didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to do it.  

“I enjoy meeting all the people and look forward to coming in each year,” he said. “I’ve always worked in the counting room but things are quite different from when I first started.” 

Leon said it was mainly through his late wife Judy’s involvement with the social committee at the Hawthorn Football Club that he first came to the Appeal. And he had other links too through his sporting interests as a VFL field umpire in the 1950s, when then Appeal Director Jeff Crouch was also an umpire.

Leon’s son Peter is no slouch in the long-service ranks either – he has had a close association with the Appeal since first rattling a tin before he was 10. He soon moved into the phone room where most of his 45 years volunteering have toted up. However Peter also knows first-hand the value of the Good Friday Appeal to the Royal Children’s Hospital.

“We’re one of those typical stories where we’ve utilised the hospital itself, which is a leading edge hospital within the community,” he said.

Leon’s charitable works have not been confined to the Good Friday Appeal – he also looks back fondly on 20 years as a volunteer transport driver for the Australian Red Cross.

“With over 100 years of service between them, we are so grateful for Leon and Peter’s efforts for the Good Friday Appeal,” Appeal Director Anne Randall said.

“It is this selfless dedication of volunteers that makes the Appeal so successful. Additionally, we are thankful to all who dig deep every year to help make the Royal Children’s Hospital a world-class facility.”