Donations flood in as community rallies behind 'beautiful' Kristy Armstrong memorial

The first Homebase game was held at Wade Park on Saturday, January 20 with 14 matches played on the day.

Ms Armstrong's life was tragically cut short on June 9, 2023 after a man allegedly crashed into her car.

Troy Armstrong, 35, has since been charged with murder and the case remains before the courts.

Organiser Ellen Sharp said the day was everything she hoped it would be as the community came together to remember the beloved mother of three.

"It was absolutely fantastic," she said.

"We had great support from the community and we had lots of people coming and going throughout the day.

"People were overwhelmingly positive about the event about the reasons why we did it."

Ms Armstrong's masters playing number 21 was retired in a moving ceremony while the feature game involving softball Olympians and World Cup players was a particular highlight.

"A lot of people made a point of coming and being here for that for that ceremony," she said.

"It was just very moving and with Edwina Bartholomew coming in, she was able to hold the ceremony beautifully in such an emotionally-driven environment.

"It was beautiful.

"There were obviously lots of tears but we were able to find a way to honour her and then get on with doing the game afterwards, which was why we're here and what she loved to do.

"Those feature players also really got into the spirit of the event. They wore their purple and they put on a really great show.

"They did some fun moves and even did a little Taylor Swift 'shake it off' in the middle of their game."

Ms Sharp said a late influx of donations and items meant Homebase would continue to raise money via a silent auction and keeping the fundraising page open for another 21 days.

Money is being split 50/50 between Ms Armstrong's children and NAPCAN.

"We had such generosity and we had donations coming in for our raffles even on the day," she said.

"So what we're doing is we're actually taking our raffles online and we're going to hold those open for 21 days.

"We actually had a whole heap of softball contributions and we had a bat that was used in the Olympics, signed balls as well as the generous prizes that came from Orange businesses and such."

Ms Sharp said the presence of domestic violence charity NAPCAN and Lifeline on the day was felt with volunteers from both organisations kept busy given the gravity of the day.

"It has started to really generate conversations and just enabled people to act on their desire to help," she said.

"We did find that there were quite a few people who went and saw the NAPCAN tent and the Lifeline counsellors.

"It was wonderful those people were able to volunteer their time to be here to provide that wrap-around support because we did talk about particular aspects of domestic violence in the commentary before each game."

If you would like to donate you can find more information at https://home-base-21k.raisely.com/?fbclid=IwAR04B3xayBrAjssriqrjqzYOBeYRBSqrXAzkn2xs9JfQ68IXedzh9AR3CTQ