Variety Bash: smiles and people makes Canning Vale couple return each year

THE people and the smiles on the faces of the children are what keep Canning Vale’s Jo Woodford coming back for the Variety Bash each year.

Ms Woodford has just completed her 10th Bash while her husband Tony participated in his fifth.

The couple raised almost $25,000 for Variety, a charity that aims to empower WA children who are sick, disadvantaged or have special needs to live, laugh and learn.

Overall, the bash raised $720,000.

The couple were part of a convoy of 29 cars and 89 participants who took on the Bash, which started in Kununurra on Sunday August 21 and finished on Saturday August 27 in Broome.

This year was an eventful Bash for the couple, who had electrical and break issue with their 1965 Chevy Belair.

Ms Woodford said the people involved in the Bash were like one big family.

“These are the people who you want to be around in life,” she said.

“I am going to keep going as much as we can as the car holds up as the finances hold up.”

Along with that, they also cooked dinner for themselves and other members of the bash using their car one of the nights.

“We cooked it on the manifold along the way,” Ms Woodford said.

“We opened the hood and put foil packets in there and everyone had a feed of dim sums, pizza and pies.”

To raise money, the couple held a charity flight to Busselton as well as a fundraiser at Hog’s Breath Cafe.