A gala day was held in Weston to support Building Billy’s Brain, a fundraising campaign for William "Billy" Casey.
Billy, who turned 2 on Friday, was diagnosed with a severe brain malformation at just six days old
The doctors said he had only a 50% chance of reaching his first birthday.
His parents, Hayley and Mathew, organised the event to raise money for Billy to access specialist therapy on the Gold Coast which is no longer covered by his government funding following changes last year.
It was a cold, rainy and windy day but almost 1500 people still showed up to support the Caseys.
"It was absolutely unreal," Mrs Casey said.
"People were still coming out in the rain to support us and we had a lot of people say that they were coming rain, hail or shine anyway, so that was really cool.
"Especially because it was just an individual, it was just one child. It was not an organisation or anything like that, so, to see the whole community rally together to show up for him, even in the rain [was great]."
The weather got better as the day went on and everything went ahead as planned.
It was a gold coin donation to get in and there was plenty on offer for everyone.
There were carnival games such as ring toss, Nerf shooting and a balloon pop dart board.
People enjoyed having a go on the mini Jeeps set up alongside a bungy trampoline and a blow-up mobile laser tag game as well.
Vendors came from far and wide to sell home-made garden decorations and model cars. There was even a hairdresser working.
Local groups got in behind the event. The Weston Volunteer Fire Brigade brought along a fire truck, the Oamaru Lions Club had its Noddy train running, and the Waiareka Valley Lions Club ran a lucky spin.
There was also plenty of live entertainment. The Central Coast Country Music Club performed, as did the Oamaru Rock and Roll dancers.
The biggest act was Craig Smith, the author of The Wonky Donkey, who performed numbers from his children’s books and even sang happy birthday to Billy.
"That was incredibly special and Billy loved it," Mrs Casey said.
While they were still counting the total amount raised, the Caseys were blown away by the generosity of the North Otago community.
"We made three and a-half grand off of the gate alone.
"The helpers on the day were amazing. Some of them were friends [and] family, some of them were just from the community that just stepped up and wanted to be a part of it.
"The amount of donations and sponsors and support that we had leading up to it, it was incredibly humbling."
All of their fundraising efforts have paid off as the family has booked flights at the end of next month to get Billy back to the Gold Coast for therapy.
