Cootamundra's amazing six-man dancing troupe has rocketed to third in the State after their performance at the Ex-Servicemen's Club on Friday night.
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A capacity audience of 260 gave a standing ovation to the six members of the NSW Fire and Rescue Station 266, who've become hot stage performers under the tutelage of Nadia and Hannah from 'Dance 2590'.
The reception after their 'Full Monty' was so noisy they promised an encore if the audience made more noise and if they filled up two donation buckets that were doing the rounds.
"And they did," said spokesman Jeremy Annetts. "They made so much noise it just lifted the roof off.
"People were throwing fifties and hundreds and change into the buckets, and we had people throwing money at us on stage when we were doing the encore.
"We had a bra thrown at us, and knickers - it's one of the most incredible fund-raisers I've ever been involved in."
The fund-raising effort by the six men, with the support of their families and friends, is part of a campaign by Fire and Rescue NSW to raise money and awareness for motor neurone disease (MND), an affliction that kills two people a day in Australia by eroding the central nervous system, progressively causing sufferers to lose the use of their limbs and ability to speak, swallow and eventually breathe.
Mr Annetts said the team and its supporters were looking for ways to become the No. 1 fund raising team in the State during November.
"We raised $18,564 on the night through ticket sales, raffles, auctions, games and merchandise," he said.
"This puts us on track for a total so far of about $21,000. We're going to try and get to $25,000, and if we get to that we'll share the video bloopers and interviews from the night on social media.
"There are 600 firies all up in NSW participating - I'm not sure how many teams, but we're sitting at number three now.
"We weren't even thinking of being in top spot but now top spot's so close we're trying to think of other ways to raise money to get there."
This Saturday the Cootamundra team will join the "Firies Climb for MND" event, climbing the 1,504 steps of Sydney Tower Eye wearing over 20kg of firefighting gear.
The success of the Full Monty has been "gob smacking" for the team, which was originally hoping to raise around $3,000 for MND.
"We're going to well and truly smash it and they've asked us to do a performance at the awards night on Saturday night in Sydney."
Interviewed on Riverina ABC on Monday, Mr Annetts said the team had discussed whether it would be a let-down after training for the dance, and "one of the boys suggested we go on tour".
To donate, please visit the Facebook page of Fire and Rescue NSW Station 266 Cootamundra.
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