September marks the start of the Kennards for Kids campaign, the company’s annual initiative to raise money for children’s educational and medical charities.

Thanks to the generous support of customers over the last eleven years, Kennards Hire has donated $1 for every hire made in their national network of hire centres during September and October. More than $1.5 million has been donated since the initiative was first launched in 1998.

Angus Kennard, a director of the Kennards Group, reported that the Kennards for Kids project has helped build a hanger and provided a tug to tow Child Flight helicopters. Donations have also bought six Variety Sunshine Coaches in Victoria and South Australia, helped to provide mobile home care units for children with cancer in Queensland, and taught life skills to more than 180,000 children in Western Australia through the Constable Care program.

In 2008, over $200,000 was shared between Child Flight, Variety the Children’s Charity, the Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation and the Constable Care Child Safety Foundation. This year, Kennards Hire will again support these charities and the company is hoping to increase the size of their donation with the help of Tradies.  

“We believe that we have a responsibility to support the community and the environment. In additional to being a long-term sponsor of the Kennards for Kids charities, we sell bandannas in all our hire centres and we raised over $17,000 for Canteen last year. Kennards Hire also provides funding to Stepping Stone House, which helps homeless, neglected and abused teenagers to get a new start,” Angus said.

Kennards Hire is a family-owned business that has grown into one of Australia’s leading hire companies. Today, it turns over around $160m per annum. The company operates more than 100 hire centres nationally and employs over 900 Australians.

In addition to offering a large and diverse range of tools, equipment and vehicles in their general Hire Centres, the Kennards Group now includes three other highly specialised businesses.