FETE-Stall Thankyous 1
THANKYOU!!
Congratulations we made $88,000 profit for our primary school. Another amazing result, smashing our budget of $50,000. The top line gross profit was similar to 2023 yet our 2024 costs were significantly higher. Shows that all those “beg, borrow and steals” are needed and I thank you for all the hustle.
Sunday was an amazing day not just because we raised money for our school but because we all came together as a community. The Fete, whilst a lot of work, does strip life back to the good bits, the things that are important. Belonging to your community, helping others, kids, family, food, music and a shared good time. A lot of memories were made on Sunday and we should all be proud of the effort we made together.
It is worth mentioning how generous our families and businesses were this year. We received thousands of dollars of in-kind support. Many of these businesses gave to the Silent Auction and behind the scenes as well. Just a few examples: The Green Refractory made us 300 scones, for free, even though Sandy has no connection with our school. The Friendly Moving Men donated a huge van and two workers for 2 full days. These guys collected equipment from 6 different schools and then took it all back on Monday. Extraordinary. What about the BBQ, Nelson Alexander gave us money and 26 hours of volunteer staff time, on a Sunday. Plus, all the sausages were donated by Coles, Tek Foods and Larder fresh making for a sweet profit margin on the sausos. And that holiday home. Just a casual 7 days in Byron Bay. What legends! These donators don't have children, but they were struck by the community effort and wanted to help.
People are so kind.
Thank you to every single person who donated their services or products. Big or small it takes the whole village, and we know that the end result is directly linked to everyone's contributions.
Thank you to all the Feties. Those legend families that rolled up their sleeves and got it done. My role as co-ordinator means I get to see just how many hours people put in. That seamless end result that looks effortless on Fete day is generally the result of weeks and weeks of work. Thank you for putting your life on hold and for bringing such good vibes along the way.
Thanks to everyone who volunteered, came along, spent their hard-earned and made it another Great Lee Street Fete. The title of " The best day of the year" is safe for another 12 months.
Thanks everyone for being so inspiring.
From Catherine.
Thank you to the 2024 Stall and Area leads:
Fete Co-ordinator- Catherine Doggett
Logistics: Annabel Barker, Alice Knowles and Lucy Marshall
Plumbing: Shannon Fry
Electrical: Jeremy West
PR/Social Media/Major Sponsors: Mietta Walsh
Sustainability/Wash Station: Kate Silvagni
Silent Auction: Raylyn Fonseca, Bess Barr, Bec Slater, Hazell Opoz
Finance/POS: Trish Harrington
Inclusion/chill out/roster: Kylie Lee
Graphic Design: Ingrid Smith
Information and First Aid - Lenice Murray
Rides and Permits: Rachel Matthews and Kris Dearricott
T-shirts: Andrea Mullen and Ingrid Smith
Stage/Entertainment: Rachel Corben
MC: Ben May
Kids Zone: Clare Burrows and Jess Adam
Dunk Tank: Stephen Leporati
Food Coordination: Pip Dwyer
Kids Food: Jane Galvin, Olivia Wilkins, Marika Benetti-Hille
Lemonade: Alumni led by Erik DeSilva
Fruity Fondue: Erica Slocombe and Warwick Mihaly
Crepes: Hamilton and Prim Moore
Bar: Steve Mifsud
Curry: Lisa Needham
Balkan Bites: Gia Cari and Bari Nuhiji
Crayfish Roll: Laura Di Florio and Anthony Yotis
Okonomiyaki: Yuki Hojo
Clothes: Kathleen Lang
BBQ: Michael Bogwitz and Tristan Cooke
Devonshire Tea: Briony O'Keeffe and Megan Quinlan
Plants: Sarah Morgan
Flowers: Carli Dunchue
Box Maze: Kathryne Houchin
Henna Tattoo: Kiran Sahni
Mystery Bottles: Denise and Eli Atallah
Craft: Tiffany Carter
Jams: Sian Fitzpatrick and Erin Tibbitts
Toys: Emily Corcoran and Sarah Stoller
Cakes: Gabby Rodgers
Books: Isabel De Silva. A very special thanks to Joy the book wrangler extraordinaire. What a legend!
Special mention to Trish, Gaby, Rachel and Jane and the teaching/admin teams, they helped in so many ways. Plus the 5/6's & CNPS Alumni Yr 7 & 8.
Catherine Doggett
What can we say about the woman who brought the whole shebang together, and in record time!
Catherine Doggett, you’re an absolute marvel! With your clear head, next-level organisational skills, people-wrangling capabilities, calm presence and sheer stamina, you made our 2024 fete stronger than the sum of its parts. You’re an integral part of our school community and we are very fortunate indeed. Thanks Catherine, we appreciate you.
Love from the whole school.
MC Ben
What would the day have been without the encouraging cajoling and meaningful musings of our wonderful MC Ben May. Inclusive of dad jokes, he kept us all on track and well-informed! Thanks, Ben!!
Devonshire Tea
The Devonshire Tea team would like to thank our incredible volunteers for helping us to run the room like a well-oiled vintage machine. Not all the jobs were glamorous (special shout out to our solo dishwasher Marcella, who did a very hard slog!) but all jobs were done with love and generosity. Our other vols Pip, Ruth, Raaf, Shannon and Paddy were invaluable, and our student volunteers Aanika D, Alia A, Abigail L, Margot R, Charlee A, Tilly F, Grace B and Charlotte R were phenomenal – so much initiative and enthusiasm! Keep your eye out for them running the world in a couple of years (weeks?). Special thanks also to our extremely helpful pre-fete vols Claude D, Viv M, Sienna C, Tilly F and Louis F and to Jane Mann who loaned us some extremely fancy teacups.
We'd also like to thank our mind-blowingly generous donor of scones, Green Refectory (PSA: they also bake the best passionfruit sponge in town) and donors of pure cream, milk and butter, St David's Dairy, who added a touch of luxury to our delicious scones. Sunny Creek Organic, Rose St Pantry, Jude's Jams and Loafer provided bucketloads of insanely good jam, Blooms and Botanicals elevated the tea room to the next level with beautiful floral arrangements, and Bottega Tasca and Rathdowne Bottlemart provided the sparkling cherry on top. We are grateful beyond words for their support, and we know our generous school community will support them in turn.
Mystery Bottles
What an absolutely cracking day we had on the Mystery Bottles Stall. Huge shoutout to the CNPS community, our family, friends and ripper neighbours for their unbelievable generosity. With over 150 quality bottles on offer, we were sold out by lunchtime and shifted our focus to the Beach Buggy Raffle. The day was made even better by the return of our 2023 raffle winner, Wendy and our latest volunteer recruit, Jeremy Townsend, who has offered to lock in next year! Jeremy, you blended in like a fine Bordeaux and we are stoked you had fun. With Jimmy's nanna manning ticket sales at the marquee and Eli and I roaming the crowd, we sold over 500 raffle tickets and celebrated this year's truly deserving winner, Georgie. BEST. FETE. DAY. EVER!
Denise and Eli
KID ZONE THANKYOUS
We would like to thank the kids who came to Kid Zone and had fun playing – their smiles and laughter made us so happy.
Thank you to our team of helpers including parents, students, teachers and people from the wider CNPS community, for volunteering their time and energy: DJ, Michelle, Campbell, Arlo, Seb, Lizzie, Gautam, Max, Sally, Dave, Arlo, Euna, Yvette, Dave, Grigor, Marika, Holly, David, all Year 5/6 students who packed Lucky Bags and helped on fete day, including Charlee, Jacqui, Norah, Stella, Adriana, Zoe, Julian, Aria, Raj, Phoenix, Garcia, Eddy, Jimmy, Vito. Also Kara, Chris, Gaby, Alice, Annabel, Lucy, Kylie, Catherine, Kris, Rachel M, and Gero.
And thank you to all who donated chocolate, soft toy prizes and items for the Lucky Bags. The kids loved them!!
Clare and Jess ❤️❤️
Clothes
Thank you to all the CNPS families who donated some beautiful clothing, footwear and accessories. We had so many lovely items. I couldn't believe the quality that kept coming up, even at the end of the day. So much good stuff! And some serious bargains!
The 4 weeks prior to fete day takes a team to sort through all the donations. In no particular order, I'd like to thank Marnie Pascoe, Kristen Derricot, Prim, Jess Adam, Raylyn Fonseca, Joy McCaffrey and Lisa Monetti.
I live in fear of forgetting someone, so if I've missed you, apologies and let me know so I have the opportunity to correct it!
Helping to set up in the library, Emilia Quijano and her children, Raph and Eva. Alison Knott and Kaleswari Somasundaram and Coran Lang were very helpful on the Saturday.
On fete day, Rachel's child, Charlie Killen, my daughter Imii Lang, Kaleswari Somasundaram, Khema Bopitiya and Kate Cavanough were all thrown into the deep end and swam beautifully. It was very busy, with a queue nearly out the door till well after lunchtime. I couldn't have done it without you all. Thank you.
Pack up at the end of the day is huge. Kaleswari Somasundaram, Murale Balakrishnan, Aadithiya M and Coran Lang were instrumental in managing this whopper of a task in 2 hours. It's especially taxing at the end of the day. I really, really appreciated it.
Lastly, Gaby Shortis, Trish Harrington, Catherine Dogget, Alice Knowles and Annabel Barker. Your calm assuredness, willingness to always help and your humour made the preceeding weeks a breeze. Thank you!
Kathleen Lang (Gabe 3/4SH).
Box Maze
A big thank you to everyone who helped with the box maze this year!
Thank you to everyone that brought in boxes for us- love that our collective workplaces, purchases and house moves make for such fun!
Thank you to our amazing construction team- Prue Perry, Sally Abbott, Eunate Urrutia and Forest (and all of our kids)! Each of you brought your individual talents to make for what can only be described as creative chaos in cardboard.
And thank you to Ellen Giblett, Sarah Barker, Prue Perry and Ada Young for giving up your time on fete day to ensure that shoes were off, kids didn’t enter through the exit and for rescuing kids who needed it.
We managed to get them all back to their families- however, there was one pair of blue shoes outside at the end of the day so hoping that there isn’t still a kid stuck in a box somewhere!
The kids were beaming with happiness when they emerged at the end (the bigger kids more just exhausted and sweaty having had to army crawl through the very narrow tunnels)- which makes all the tape and time worth it!
A big thanks also to Charlie Perry and the Perry and Houchin kids for the cardboard cleanup- a mammoth effort getting all of those boxes across the school!
Thanks Team!
You are all a-MAZE-ing!
Kathryne Houchin
Silent Auction
Thank you to our generous families and local businesses who donated amazing prizes! Congratulations to the winning bidders and thank you for your contributions - a total of $32k was raised!
We would also like to thank, from the bottom of our hearts the village that helped contact and follow up businesses, collected vouchers, handed out flyers, helped us with visual merchandising, supervising on the day, pack and clean up after the fete and organising prizes for easy pick up!
Deep gratitude and special mentions to Mietta & Nardia (social media and the sponsor shout outs), Ingrid (Graphic Design extraordinaire), Bec K & Annabelle (processing vouchers, wrapping prizes and prep for fete day), Violetta and Zoe (for your time on fete day) and of course Catherine, Gaby and Trish for all their help and support throughout the last few months!
The Silent Auction Team (Emma, Bec, Hazell, Bess & Raylyn).
Jam Stall
To be able to hold the jam stall, a huge effort of making takes place before the Fete. We had over 600 jars on the day and nearly sold them all!
Big thank you to Erin for partnering up on the jam stall and sharing the bulk of the making, as well as sourcing most of the fruit. Thank you to our other makers - Kylie, Michelle, Richard, Sally and for our bread and butter pickle donation. Thank you to Senserrick for their generous donations.
Big thanks to everyone that came to the jam labelling sessions at school, especially all the students that pitched in, it is wonderful to see you step up and care for your school. Thanks to those that donated jars, it meant that we had something to put the jam in! Huge thanks to Gaby for printing and proof-checking all the labels.
Thanks to those that volunteered on the day, it was due to you that we were able to pull such a successful day off. Thanks to Russ who stepped in as Mr. Jam for the day, your calm as steady approach on the day was much appreciated. Big thanks to my parents and family, especially Paul who helped with labelling, pricing, volunteered for the whole day and put up with our kitchen being turned over to jam-making and being sticky for many weeks.
Also thank you to everyone who came and bought things, it was a pleasure to see everyone and talk about all things jam and chutney!
Rides and Tickets
It was another super fun year for rides and activities at the fete.
Thank you to Rachel Matthews for your tireless work bringing the rides over the past years - there is so much planning and coordinating and we will miss you more than you know next year. Thank you to all our lovely volunteers who made the ticket stall and presales happen - Rachel H, Joan, Olivia, Jackie, Allison, Anthony, Sophie and Lenice who volunteered all day for the tickets and information. A big shout out to our wonderful friends Jess and Clare for snipping those thousands of tickets to make our jobs easier on Fete day. Thanks so much to Stephen for running the dunk tank all day. And finally a huge thank you to Catherine, Annabel and Alice for helping us bring in some brand new rides to the school and O'Grady Street this year- this was a logistical jigsaw puzzle and we appreciate you!
Kris and Rach
Dunk Tank
Thank you to our dunkees: Catherine, Gaby, Sam, Wine Steve. Plus lots of kids. People who helped: Filamena and Pierre. Rachel and Chris for set up. Alexander and my sister helped as well. Lots of fun was had by all.
Stephen
Inclusion Initiatives
This year we expanded our inclusion initiatives on offer at the fete.
1) Low sensory hour (10-11am)
2) The Paddock chill out space (in collaboration with Bargoonga Nganjin North Fitzroy Library)
3) A social story to prepare everyone for what to expect on fete day
4) A sensory map in the social story to help families explore the fete at their own pace
5) Priority passes for families with children with additional needs
Massive shout outs to everyone who helped us enable families with additional needs to be seen, included and celebrated.
If you have any suggestions on how we could do things better next year, please let Kylie know.
Special thanks to: Bargoonga Nganjin, North Fitzroy Library,All the parents and carers in our Support Group for Children with Additional Needs, Ingrid Smith, Megan Quinlan, David Hansen, Bronwen Boerlage, Keir Wotherspoon, Cath Doggett, Mietta Walsh, Logistics leads: Annabel, Alice, Lucy, Rides leads: Rachel and Kris , Gaby and Trish, Jane Bilby, Rachel Corben Billy Candy
Amazing efforts all-round as always. A million thank yous.
Count Room and Collection
A huge thank you to my Count Room and Collector Colleagues: Gaby and Kim who were amongst it all day, along with Jane, Erin, Nicole, Billy, Kara and Sam. And we loved the visitors to our busy window! We smashed it out in record time, whilst also helping with EFTPOS issues and money exchanges. Almost drowned in EFTPOS receipts which we didn’t count! but loved seeing them rolling in and were ready for the security guard to collect the cash at 5.30pm.
A very grateful Trish
