Raygun rallies for the Riverina, helping preschool to bounce back after storm

Freya Lucas

Mar 06, 2025

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Australian competitive breakdancer Rachael Gunn, most widely known as ‘Raygun’, made a special appearance in the New South Wales community of Harden, helping to raise funds for a preschool and long day care service damaged by a freak hailstorm.

Hosting the Raygun Dance Party at Harden Country Club on Friday, February 28, the fundraising event gave 100 per cent of the proceeds to the preschool’s cause. There was face painting, a DJ and a photographer, while the room was decorated with rainbow streamers, hundreds of balloons, dance music, and ‘plenty of lollipops’.

Raygun represented Australia at the 2024 Paris Olympics in breaking but was eliminated during the round-robin stage of the competition, drawing attention worldwide for her performance.

Based in Sydney, Raygun is a regular visitor to Harden, where she visits with family and friends, including cousin Steph Ellis, who has three children who attend Harden’s Bunyip Preschool.

Sadly the preschool was impacted heavily by a freak storm in February which featured rain, wind and dangerous hail, and at this stage is likely to be closed for up to 12 months due to the damage caused by the storm.

Mrs Ellis teamed up with Raygun to organise a charity disco, hoping not only to support her children, aged one, three and five years, but others in the preschool community also.

"The teachers there are really amazing and the support is really good,” she told local news source Region Riverina.

"The original building was fantastic. Then we had that storm on February 10 and it took out our medical centre, the local supermarket, both the primary schools, the high school and the daycare centre as well as other small businesses. The council chambers were completely ruined as well."

While most of the affected businesses were able to soon reopen, the preschool did not fare so well, with both structural and electrical facilities being impacted, leaving the building unsafe for children.

“They've said to us it will take six to 12 months to repair, or they will possibly have to find a new location," Mrs Ellis said.

The centre is currently operating at the racecourse and will do so until October.

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