St Patrick’s Community Christmas Festival Wrap Up

And that’s a wrap….

The inaugural St Patrick’s Community Christmas Festival was held on St Patrick’s grounds on 10th December 2022.

What a day it was! The weather was spectacular, the crowds were out and the festival sites were at capacity.

Delicious food was served from local food businesses and the school canteen stall was busy and run by an amazing group of volunteers on the day. The cake stall donations were aplenty and were quickly snapped up by festival goers.

The Bega Band helped everyone get in the spirit, playing Christmas tunes. Then Brothers on Fire entertained everyone with tricks and an awesome interactive workshop for all.

The Year 4/5 and 5/6 classes had worked so hard on their stalls, doing an amazing job and providing fun for all on the day. ‘Pick your nose’ and the ‘dunk tank’ proving to be crowd favourites. The Devonshire Tea was very popular as well.

We had a special visit from Bluey and Bingo and then Mr and Mrs Claus themselves, lighting up the little faces of the festival.

We were privileged to have members from our local branches of the RFS, SES and PCYC attend and provide lots of fun and information for all ages.

Norm Pearce, the Salway’s and Jenna Alcock made sure our farmyard corner was a fun place to visit with some local calves, ‘Crush Snow’ the dairy cow and some very adorable puppies on show.

Market stall holders commented on what a lovely event we were hosting, and all had a great day.

The crowd built to watch the infamous Plunge the Principal Raffle. The crowd was cheering and Mrs Scott-Pegum took to the platform with great sportsmanship. After an accidental first plunge, which shocked and stirred the crowd, the principal was plunged in spectacular fashion, raising $488 in the process.

The day was an absolute success, boasting a profit of just over $11000. An outstanding effort! 2023 will see these funds put towards improving our wonderful school. There have been suggestions of a shade structure over the senior playground, trees on the flats and new bench seats for senior students, all ideas would be a great addition.

And such an amazing day doesn’t happen without an amazing group of people working behind the scenes.

Carmen Shoveller and Jenna Alcock worked very hard behind the scenes, with event coordination, advertising, and finances. Many late nights were spent to make the event the success it was. Thank you to these two amazing ladies.

The Festival committee members: Jenna Alcock, Gemma Shinnick, Jayde Green, Nicole Van den Berg, Heidi Jessop, Donna Salway and Ashley Campbell all contributed from festival planning to obtaining sponsorship and so much more. Thank you to our fabulous festival committee.

Mrs Scott Pegum, Mrs Sheahan, Mrs Grant, Mrs Ferris, Miss Rees and Mr Broughton supported the event and helped in every way possible to make the event a success and we thank you.

So many more people came together on the day to volunteer and make the festival an amazing, engaging and spectacular event and we also thank each and every one of you.

We also thank our amazing sponsors for the event and our hugely successful raffle: Coast Hire, Tuff-As Workwear, South Coast Photobooths, Horizon, Bega Cheese,  Kanoona Kaptures, LJ Hooker Bega, Betta Home Living, Elders Tathra, Riverside Nursery, Elders Bega, Broadbill Charters, Hair by Heidi, Mitchies Jetty, R&M Detailing, Fine Lines Beauty, Peanut Eatery and Mals Pizza Bite.

From the St Patrick’s Community Council and the Festival Committee have a safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

And til the St Patrick’s Community Christmas Festival 2023, that’s a wrap.

Tam Prime

Photos 

A gallery of photos from the Christmas Festival will be uploaded to compass.