Orange's Lumiere Beauty owner Maggie Morris hosts Flood Relief Tanning Day with raffle to raise more than $12k

But for owner of Orange-based business Lumiere Beauty, she couldn't shake the urge of wanting to support those in Molong and Eugowra - two of several Cabonne-based communities that were hit hard by the recent flood events on November 14.

While knowing her busy work-life schedule wouldn't allow for being on the ground to offer help in-person, Ms Morris also knew there was two things she excels in.

"I've got no personal connection to either town, but I just so badly wanted to help the people who've been impacted and I can't get out there to physically do that," she said.

"So I thought 'okay well, what can I do instead and what am I good at?' And I'm really good at spray tanning and navigating social media, so I decided I'd combine the two [skills] and thought 'alright, that's how I'll do it'."

With the plan in motion to host a "Flood Relief Tanning Day" to raise as much money as she could, Ms Morris cleared her work schedule for a November 26 "Floodraiser" and started putting the feelers out.

Posting call-outs across Lumiere Beauty's social media pages, Maggie's movement quickly gained both local and statewide traction.

Businesses jumped on board to donate stock for lucky door prizes, her long-list of clients spread the word far and wide, and reaching out to both the Azure Tan and Bella Bronze companies, stock was fast-supplied and donated for the event without hesitation.

With the first spray tan applied at 6:30am and the last around 3:30pm, Ms Morris' goal of 50 spray tans at $30 a pop (or $50 with a goody bag thrown in ), was smashed to round out to 66 bronzed jobs for the cause in just one stint.

The nine-hour event ended up raking in $6600 at its close.

"One of my client's said 'Maggie, you've lit a match here' and I said 'a match? I think I've started a bloody bushfire," Ms Morris said of the "amazingly overwhelming" response from the droves of people in support of the fundraiser.

"I've just been absolutely blown away with the momentum it's gained and I've never done anything like this, I never expected it to grow the way it did because I thought 'I'm just this one person', but in the end it created something amazing.

"And I think people are also really wanting those different avenues to help wherever they can at the moment."

With a business mentor from Melbourne stepping in as her offsider for the day, Ms Morris opened the doors of her family digs to welcome near 100 people, using her at-home salon and laundry to create two separate tanning rooms.

With Groundstone Cafe, Prim & Platter and Whitey's Smoko Shed also donating their products and time to cater the gig completely, the huge response has also sparked another drive.

"My husband said why don't we do a raffle to raise money as well, so we popped that on the business Instagram and Facebook pages and this little raffle idea has turned into 50-something businesses donating prizes to go toward flood relief," Ms Morris said.

"Between those ticket sales so far and the tanning event on the weekend, we're now over the $12,000 mark in donations and I need to do this raffle some justice, so this Friday evening we'll draw the raffle on Instagram live and have an auction as well."

With the major prize a staycation package in Orange, there's a total of 50 packages up for grabs from Washington & Co. vouchers, photography sessions, B&B Made Easy vouchers, security systems, local artist works and a lot more.

All proceeds will go directly to flood-impacted residents, businesses and schools.

"We're doing up swimming packs for 26 students at Eugowra Public School with swimmers and towels and swimming lessons packages for kids at the Catholic school there as well," Ms Morris said.

"Donations through the GIVIT Eugowra Flood Appeal are also breaking specific things down so we're not all aimlessly buying things, so we're also doing men's toiletries packs to go to the Showground and buying up Woolies [Woolworths] vouchers for grocery items.

"The preschool there usually also do a Mother's Day raffle every year as well, so we're going to purchase prizes to help out there and take the pressure off where we can."

While the months that draw a close on the year also coincide with the beauty industry's busiest times, it's been "worth every second" for Ms Morris.

She's felt overwhelmed in the most positive sense, finding it hard to reiterate the heights that the power of people can really reach when the chips are down.

"This has turned into a beautiful team and community effort, I can't believe the amount of people who've jumped on board to make this as big as it as and just offered any or as much help as they can," Ms Morris said.

"There's almost too many people and businesses to list, it's honestly been amazing to be a part of and I haven't done any of it alone.

"To know that this will all make peoples' life a little bit easier or help or bring a smile to those in need at the moment, it's made this all worth it and then some."

With more than $4000 in prizes to be won with proceeds going to flood relief, tickets can still be purchased for $10 each or three tickets for $25, with instructions on how to donate via the Maggie Morris' social media pages.

For more information on the live raffle being drawn on December 2 at 6pm, head to the Lumiere Beauty page on Facebook or lumiere_beauty_ on Instagram.

Businesses and people in support of Lumiere Beauty's flood relief event were mentioned as follows:

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