FUNDRAISING FOREMOST… FOR MOST RAISING FUN!

Brian and Marina Crichton, Susan Walker, Alexis FitzGerald and Ruth Skippen

In the words of Scottish Poet Robbie Burns, Some hae meat and canna eat, and some wad eat that want it, but we hae meat, and we can eat and sae let the Lord be thankit .  And so it was on a braw bricht moon-licht nicht on Saturday 7^th July when the delightful Alan Roughan, tarted up in his best Scottish accoutrements welcomed well over 100 mostly similarly clad diners to the Scottish Christmas- in-July themed Toogoolawah Hotel for a night of fabulous fun, four courses of Scottish fare, fundraising and entertainment.  

Find a need and there will always be those hard-working people who cannot knock back a cry for help.  In this instance, it was the good folk from the Esk Hospital Auxiliary and a group from the Toogoolawah Bridge Club who were the oxygen behind the fundraising exercise and together with a whole host of generous donors, managed to raise $5500.00 for the purchase of a chemotherapy infusion chair and patient hoist for the Esk Hospital. From the first stirring strains of the traditional bagpipe welcome for the Haggis followed by a whisky-bearer ensuring the guests were well lubricated, to the departing strains of Auld Lang Syne, this was a night which was high on the spirit of giving not the least by Alexis and little chorus of choristers who did their level best to lead the revelers in the singing of some well-loved Scottish songs. 

Tony and Alexis FitzGerald

It was very early the following morning when the Celtic carousers were possibly still in recovery mode that another diligent group of Choir members was already hard at work fundraising for the choir serving sausages and sauces to the hungry hoards outside the Bunnings Store in Toowoomba. 

Few have not been so burdened with bundles of Bunnings Hardware that they have not found a free hand to fulfill the need for sausage fortification as they depart the store thereby creating a constant flow of customers to be catered for by choir members.  By day’s end, an elated exhaustion emerges, possibly combined with sausage phobia though never for long when sausages from Boutique Meats, the best little bovine butcher in Toogoolawah, are on the menu.  To Damien and to Sue and Roland Cox and their team of volunteers go bundles of bouquets and the gratitude of the Esk Community Choir.  

 By: Susan Walker

 

Jan Tom, Ruth, Greg, Sue

 

Tom

Roland

 

Tom, Greg, Sue

PUTTING ‘FUN’ INTO FUNDRAISING AT BUNNINGS IN TOOWOOMBA

Tom - bringing in the sausages from Boutique Meats

Grateful for the rain having made way for a crisp and sparkling Toowoomba Sunday morning, Greg and Ruth Skippen arrived in town early with boxes and eskies full of BBQ supplements to set up for the Esk Community Choir’s big fundraising day at the Toowoomba West Bunnings Store.  Twenty minutes later, Greg emerged from within hauling 2 meters of timber, bulging bags of potting mix and all manner of building and gardening accessories, reinforcing the theory that the good people of Bunnings could be possibly pumping something into their air conditioning system sending shoppers temporarily insane but not so much that the aroma of sizzling sausages and onions does not become irresistible to these weekend warriors on their way out.   And so it was on November 19^th, when conga lines of customers, managed to munch their way through almost 70 kilos of Boutique Meats’ sensational sausages, several slabs of sliced bread and multitudinous mounds of onions all smothered in the sauces and mandatory mustard.

It has to be said that a slow start had our willing workers a little worried that the previous week’s official opening of ‘the other’ Bunnings store may have thrown a bunnings spanner into the potential profit-making experience.  However, it was not long before people laden with purchases were lining up for their sausage snacks, served to them by a corps of choir members cooking, preparing, and managing the money and drinks in a choreographed sequence of alternating shifts, some lasting the length of the day.

By 4.30pm with all but a few of the sausages sold and the clean up completed there were few who that night would not have had any trouble sleeping the sleep of the exhausted, satisfied in their having not only reaped the rewards of their hard work but having again put capital F U N into FUNdundraising!

To Ruth and Greg Skippen who took hold of the organizational reins of this with the competence, grace and selfless spirit we have come to know in them both; to Damien FitzGerald and his Boutique Meats for his generous sponsorship of this important fundraiser and to the 13 choir members who  gave so willingly of their time and allowed us all to forget that it was supposed to be work and not fun and, along the way, made it the success it has been on so many levels, A BIG THANK YOU!!

By: Sue Walker

Marina and Brian

Saucy kids - Carolyn and Judy

Greg - totally focused

Jan - keeping an eye on the til

Miss Johanna - or is it Poirot?

Eating the profits !!!? Kathie and Sue

Lloyd, Gary and Di

Roger and Eric

Suzanne and Jan

Co-ordinator extraordinaire - Ruth.

ANOTHER CRACKING GOOD SAUSAGE SIZZLE AT TOOWOOMBA'S BUNNINGS

Keeping the Boutique Sausages  and Onions Sizzling - Brian Crichton and Tom Byrne

There are some things that gel into the natural flow of our everyday lives and one of them is the Saturday morning trip to Bunnings, not just to stock up for the action plans de jour but to fortify the body with lots of protein for the projects ahead.   And so it was on a beautiful Saturday, May 1st, when, at the Toowoomba Bunnings store, members of the ESK COMMUNITY CHOIR were at the ready sizzling kilos of those bewitching Boutique Meats sausages to stave off hunger as shoppers swarmed like ants to a picnic around the sausage tent.

With over 60 kilos of sausages to sizzle, loads of loaves and oceans of fried onions to tempt the passing parade, Kathie, Tom and their cracking team of willing workers moving in sync around the confines of a relatively small space, had sausages 'with' and 'without' handed out to the next row of hungry weekend warriors before that last squirt of tomato sauce had hit the ground.

To have the opportunity to fundraise in this way is a coup for the Choir and much of the gratitude must go to Kathie for her initiative.  However, these days are never possible without a lot of hard work and co-operation from Choir members.  It is also to the credit of those hard working volunteers that this day was gastronomically, socially and financially a great success.

By Susan Walker

The team of willing and diligent workers: Margaret, Kathie, Marina, Jan, Di,
Caitlin, Jo and Elaine