GRV donated $23,000 to two charity organisations this morning in the first of this year’s Chase for Charity presentations as part of Crocmedia’s Saturday morning Off The Bench radio show.

Each week for the past 30 weeks, three Crocmedia identities placed $500 worth of bets on greyhound races across Australia, courtesy of GRV, with all winnings being donated to charity.

Liam Pickering finished in 2nd place, raising $14,840 for the Men’s Shed Association of Victoria, while Dr Turf was third, raising $8,124 for Carrie’s Beanies for Brain Cancer.

“We’ve raised close to $120,000 through the Chase for Charity over the past three years,” GRV’s General Manager for Marketing & Strategic Communication, Louise Martin announced.

Ric Blackburn, Executive Officer of the Men’s Shed Association, said the money raised would go towards education groups on mental health.

“We’ve got 380 Men’s Sheds across the state of Victoria with 20,000 participants, and we have 32 greyhounds at our sheds for our participants to take for a walk and look after,” Ric said.

This was the first year that Carrie’s Beanies for Brain Cancer has been involved with GRV’s Chase for Charity, and General Manager Sam McGuane was on hand to accept the cheque.

“We’ve come a long way in recent times with regard to brain cancer and we still have a long way to go, particularly with regard to research, so we are very grateful to be involved with the Chase of Charity initiative,” Sam said.

A presentation for the first placed Craig Hutchison’s charity, Ronald McDonald House, will be made in the coming weeks.

Top photo (Left to right): Craig Hutchison, Ric Blackburn, Louise Martin, Sam McGuane and Liam Pickering with two giant Chase for Charity cheques.