In Australia, we have a wonderful Not-for-Profit, The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).   The RFDS was founded in 1928 to bring life-saving medical care to Australians living, travelling and working in remote areas and continues to provide this service, including emergency retrieval and ambulance transport from outback to hospital, 96 years later.  It was based on pedal radios in outback station homesteads and a single plane leased from the fledgling Qantas.

It is still based on the same principles of Medicine, Flight and Radio but these days, RFDS operates 82 planes, including jets and helicopters and is the 3^rd largest (non-military) air fleet in Australia.  It does more than 330,000 patient contacts each year and covers more than 28 million kilometers annually to deliver its services.

RFDS is supported by government to provide ongoing health services but relies on donations and fundraising to bridge the gap in operational funding and to entirely finance replacement aircraft, medical equipment and other major capital initiatives. Each of these planes cost in excess of AUS$14 million, plus medical fit out. RFDS is supported by volunteers and fund-raising initiatives around the country, and I have the privilege to be one of those volunteers.  Our regional committee raises funds in our local community through events and raffles but one of the most reliable means we use is the coin tin at stores and destinations.

For many years, shoppers and tourists have dropped their coin change into the tins after a purchase.  The tins fill up and the volunteers have a schedule for collecting and replacing the tins with the retailer.  We open the tins (with a can opener), count and bank the money.  Our group could sometimes collect over $15,000 in a year from this source.

These days, we have new issues to be concerned about.  As the tins can sit unsecured on a store bench, sometimes they are a target for thieves.  Store owners can be wary of having them if they see a risk to their staff.  But the biggest issue is that we are becoming a cashless society.  No-one carries much cash these days, making it difficult to sell a $2 raffle ticket, but also, few people transact in cash and thus, do not receive any change.  So, there is less turnaround of actual money in our society and the fundraising tins are scooping up less of the loose change that used to circulate.

Fund raising groups are slowly turning to other options.  We have “Tap & Go” points in local clubs and pubs – buy your drinks or meal and tap your card to make a $5 donation.  We have had to include a portable EFTPOS machine in our public facing activities, so the people can buy raffle tickets, merchandise or make donations using their cards or phones rather than cash.  This helps but uses lots of volunteer time to replace something that was a passive activity in the past. And the truth is, that people think more carefully about a bank transaction than they do about getting a few coins from their pockets.  I love our little red tins, but we need to ensure that our fundraising efforts are as efficient of volunteers’ time as possible.

So, the world changes and all of us must move with the changes or be left behind to struggle in an increasingly cashless society.  I wonder whether we will get to the point where coins, especially the small, loose change ones, become a rarity that is sought out only for those special coin collections.

So, I have made a small three pack of quilted coins in a presentation box.  This may be the only way that we see coins in the future.  They sure will be hard to get into those little red tins, but where there is a will, there is a way.

Completed:        September 2024

Dimensions:      40.25″ H x 13.25″ W

Materials:          Commercial printed linen fabric; applied surface of scrap commercial cottons

Technique:        Raw-edge appliqué with applied vliesofix. Freehand stitched quilted pattern and selected machine stitches.