The Great 2016 Our Lady of the Rosary Parish Fete

To borrow from Gloria Gaynor, I have survived my first Parish Fete in Australia! And what an experience! My body is still sore from all the lifting. My hands ache and I think my feet have swollen from all the standing! (I must be getting old!) Yet there is a big smile on my face!

By all accounts it was a fabulous success! So many attended and so many commented on what a wonderful atmosphere they felt coming to our parish. So much joy and so much generosity of spirit. So many gave of themselves so freely. It was just lovely. I feel so very blessed. One young man wrote me an email to say how much he appreciated all I had done. I wrote back and shared how much I appreciated all everyone else had done. I felt overwhelmed by the herculean efforts of everyone! I think this is what Heaven is like; overflowing gratitude and great joy for God and for others. Thank you, Jesus!

I am not sure exactly how much was made, but initial estimates are that we were very successful! What amazed me more was how nice it all turned out. Everything seemed very professional, though all involved were amateurs. For example, here is the poster designed by the parish secretary's daughter (1). She is in college studying business. This is better than many professional designer's works! When I saw this, I had no suggestions for improvements—a first for me! We used it for banners and posters of all sizes and shapes, plastering them all over Kellyville.

This dear old lady (on the right in photo 2) came hours early thinking we started the Fete at 10 am (it started at 1 pm! 10 am was our set up time). Instead, she was happy to sit and wait as she couldn't do too much. So we brought her the prizes for our "chocolate wheel" (3) (which, by the way, has nothing to do with chocolate). At a chocolate wheel, organizers sell numbered tickets for one of the gift baskets. These tickets are numbered the same as the slots on the wheel, Then they give the wheel a spin and the person with the matching ticket as to the number upon which it lands wins the prize. I suspect that originally the prizes were all candy and chocolates, All these prizes were items donated by our school families! Everything here was pure profit!

This is the P&F stall (which is like our "PTA"…I think it stands for Parents and Friends [of the school]) (4). This mom is a bibliophile (5). She and her two kids organized a "used book stall." We got some old encyclopedias but many good quality books! She is going to try to sell the remainder at a used book store. We'll donate the rest to the library. (All the children's books sold fast!)

Here is Br. Louis with Anne at our "White Elephant stall" set up in our old hall (6). Br. Louis shared that he wanted to find an elephant trunk to put on so he could be the "white elephant!" God bless Br. Louis! A white elephant stall is basically a garage sale (tag sale for you Easterners). This ended up being the most profitable stall of the fete. However, we have a lot of left overs. We are going to try to make some sales this morning after Mass. ("Everything's must go $2 sale!")(I made probably close to $1,000 just on Sunday am selling the leftovers from the white elephant stall!)

The least profitable stall of the fete was the fashion stall (7). Although the clothes were donated, nobody was buying. Perhaps next time we combine this with the white elephant stall. The next three are of our dear Filipino community: "steady Eddie" at the grille (8) (You can really count on him to be there for you anytime/anywhere); the rest of the "crew" preparing food (9); and the inside "crew" (10). The Filipinos had two big sections and were the most profitable in food sales. We also sold foods from other parts of the world: Protugal, Italy, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia (11).

Our cake stall was made of home made items donated by our parishioners and the school families and staffed by parishioners (12). We had three long tables that could not hold all the tiems for sale. As you can see, many were store quality (13-15), though made by our families! Here is the Youth group "sausage sizzle"(16); they grilled sausages and onions and served cold drinks and chips.

Here is a view of our rides (17-20). And here are some "big kids" who got on the ride (21). I love the joy on their faces as the ride was cranked up—they are just like kids! (22) The evening was capped off with an 8 pm fireworks display that lasted 10 full minutes (23-25). This is the new hall in the lowere right foreground where we set up a stage and our kids and adults performed. It was really lovely and drew crowds. Look at how packed the crowd is at the bottom. Afterwards we all pitched in and took down the stalls and were done is about 1.5 hours. I celebrated a mass at 10:15 pm for the families of those who worked. Overall, just a great fete!