Altona Traders go to Town.

The Altona Village Traders Association, led by Kim Walsh , his wife Sharon and Annette Stephens, adopted the northwest Victoria town.

Mr. Walsh said it was a letter from the Donald traders' group to his local paper just before Christmas 2006 that spurred them into action.

Mr. Walsh, 58, said the letter pleaded for city shoppers to so some of their festive spending in Donald.

"Here was a group of traders fromn the bush who were doing it really tough," he said.

"We all knew the drought was affecting the bush, but we just didn;t know how much.

"This was our opportunity to show some good old Aussie spirit and help out fellow Australians in need."

Mr. Walsh, president of his traders' association, contacted his Donald counterpart and learned the town was struggling to stage it annual Chriatmas festival.

The Altona group dipped into its coffers and passed the hat around to its 80 members, coming up with $2000.

The money helped save the festival, paying for carnival rides and special treats for the children.

The association also bought four bikes from the Donald bike shop to be given away at the festival, and put together 15 huge hampers with priduce bought locally.

The hampers were distributed buy the church minister to farmerswho could not afford to put Christmas dinner on their table.

It was the start of a special friendship which saw the Altona traders sponser the 2007 Christmas festival, support various other events and answer many calls for help, including providing gardening equipment and a full commercial kitchen to Donald Primary School.

Mr and Ms Walsh, 51, and Ms Stephens 49, have been nominated for a Pride of Australia mateship Medal.