“I’ve got some good news for you”: Tracy Grimshaw's generous final gesture
Tracy Grimshaw has ended her time on A Current Affair with her trademark generosity and gave a much-needed boost to a local community ravaged by recent floods.
The TV host and journalist presented the town of Eugowra with a $50,000 donation from Coles, which will go to Givit’s Eugowra Flood Appeal and be used by the community to pay for fuel, groceries and hardware.
“I think I have got some good news for you.” Grimshaw told locals Amanda Mongan and Judd McKenna.
“Aaron Ralph from Coles is standing off to the side there, Aaron would you like to come in (to the shot) because I think you’re about to make everyone’s day.”
The Coles regional manager proceeded to give the large cheque to Mongan and McKenna, to the cheers of locals standing behind them.
"Here at Coles, we love to look after our communities that we serve and Eugowra is in the heartland of our region out here in the Central West," Ralph said.
“We’ve come out last week and saw the devastation and it was really, really heartbreaking. We dropped off a delivery of essential goods and today we just wanted to go again and we want to kick off the Eugowra Flood Appeal with a massive $50,000 donation to the community.”
Image: A Current Affair
After receiving the good news, McKenna grabbed Ralph for a heartfelt hug.
When asked how they would use the money, McKenna said it would go back into the community.
“These people that stand behind us here are the backbone of the community,” he said.
“If this can help them in any way possible, some goods, whatever (they) need to get back on their feet, this is what it’s going to be used for.
“These people have lost everything - their houses, houses have floated away, they’ve got nothing. But look at this spirit behind us.”
Earlier in the segment, McKenna and Mongan spoke about what it was like during the floods and how their homes and businesses have been affected.
Mongan, who has lived in Eugowra her whole life, watched her hairdressing salon go under and waited for eight hours on the roof of her home with her family before being rescued
“You’re not the only one who did that, are you?” Grimshaw asked.
“Oh god no, we were one of the lucky ones, we were slightly safer than the other people in the full force of the carnage,” Mongan said.
“It was just any general flood, we were downtown helping people pack up and next minute, a wall of water came.
“We’d moved our cars and ran back to the house for a few things, and tried to get our kids down the back lane to the evacuation centre at the school and we nearly got washed away, and luckily we have a big solid house that stopped the water a bit, so it rose slower.
“And then we just realised, ‘Oh my god, it’s going to go over our heads, we need to get up on our roof’, and from up there we could see houses moving. It was just unimaginable, really can’t describe it.”
McKenna, who owns two cafes in town, was swept away in the water while trying to get others to safety and his businesses were damaged.
The pair said donations were sorely needed to help the community recover and thanked those who had already given funds, time and help in other ways.
"The kindness and generosity has been incredible," Mongan said.
"And we don't know how we will ever thank those kind people."
The episode marked the end of Grimshaw’s 17-year tenure as the show’s host, after she made the shock announcement that she would be stepping down from the show’s top spot in early September.
Image: A Current Affair