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INFO FROM SOME OF OUR EVENTS IN 2010

(events are in chronological order starting with the most recent)
2010 Black and White Charity Ball - 14 August, Le Montage
285 guests danced the night away at our fourth annual charity ball, with all proceeds going towards the development of the hydrotherapy pool at Lucas Gardens School in Five Dock.

Principal Ann Roberts made an inspiring presentation about her wonderful students, and the many benefits they will receive from having ready access to hydrotherapy. 

MC Barry Higgins did a wonderful job keeping the night moving along, and auctioneer Charlie Powell performed his usual magic and helped raise plenty of dollars via our live auction.

We are very grateful to all of our sponsors. Platinum sponsors were PJ Gallagher's Irish Pub Drummoyne and Gregory and Carr Funeral Directors. Gold sponsors were City of Canada Bay Council and Trevor Lee and Son Funeral Directors. Silver Sponsors were Warwick Williams Real Estate, Drummoyne, Brigitte Academy de Beaute, Five Dock, Tint a Car, Five Dock, Caring Funerals and Thirst Civil.  Our major donors were Officeworks in Five Dock and Binet Homes. In addition, dozens of other businesses donated products and services we were able to use as prizes and auction items on the night. It was great to have our Patrons, Mayor Angelo Tsirekas and The Hon John Murphy MP in attendance, who both spoke about their pride in their involvement with Communities for Communities. 

Our 2010 Ball Committee did a fantastic job in creating a beautiful event for our community. We are also grateful for Le Montage's excellent hospitality and gorgeous venue. The food, wine and band (Superstitious) were excellent and everyone had a great night out!

Our Ball raised around $50,000 which will go directly to Lucas Gardens to help fund the building of the hydrotherapy pool. This is the fourth Ball we have held in support of Lucas Gardens, and it brings the total funds raised for the school over the past four years to $250,000. We are very proud of this result and are very grateful to all of our community who have supported this event with great enthusiasm and generosity. 

Below is a gallery of photos from the night:
 
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 2010 Immersion Trip, 9 - 18 July, Rainbow Village, South Vietnam

Our third immersion trip to Rainbow Village took place over 9 - 18 July 2010. This was our largest trip with 26 volunteers heading over to continue the building project and to develop our relationship with the community. 

As with previous trips, we were welcomed with open arms by the Habitat staff, the Catalyst staff who operate the school and outreach program, and the whole of the community. As a result of a donation by QBE, we were able to take over 30 computers which have now been set up as a computer lab providing the school and the community with a fantastic resource. The computers will be used by the students and there will also be classes for adults. 

The building work was performed on the final 16 houses forming stage 1 of the development. The houses were at a fairly early stage of construction so there was plenty of moving sand and rock, pounding down sand and rock, laying concrete, mortar and bricks. Being wet season we were hampered a little bit with the fifth day, Friday, being effectively a washout. 

We were fortunate to be there for a handover ceremony where 10 families moved into houses that the January 2010 immersion team had helped to build. A proud and moving time for all involved. 

We were once more treated to a feast prepared by the community complete with our own Master Chef judging competition between the teams who had prepared the meal for ourselves and about 400 members of the community. 

In meeting with the Kien Giang Union of Friendship Organisation (KUFO), the government body who has approved our involvement, we were informed that Rainbow Village is the most successful project of its type in Vietnam. This is certainly something that we as the major donors can be extremely proud. 

Habitat, Catalyst and the local community look forward to another opportunity when Communities for Communities volunteers can make another visit.
 
 2010 movie premiere of 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse', 2 July, Reading Cinema Rhodes
Our friends at Reading Cinema once again kindly allowed us to take over a cinema for the screening of the third instalment in the popular vampire romance series! We were also able to screen our Immersion Trip movie and it was great to see so many new faces in the audience. Around 100 people came along and we raised $1,000 for Rainbow Village and Cebu.  
 2010 AGM and celebration of 2009, 21 June, Dobroyd Aquatic Club
 We really enjoyed hosting our AGM and celebration night at the gorgeous Dobroyd Aquatic Club. Around 40 supporters turned up for the informal part of the night where we made a presentation about our activities and achievements in 2009. Our President, Lance Brooks acknowledged the generosity of our supporters, sponsors, donors, volunteers, patrons, Canada Bay Council, schools, churches, Rotary Clubs and sporting clubs and more - all of whom helped make it our most successful fundraising year ever. We had a photo slide show that showcased all of our events (18 altogether). We then enjoyed hearing what Communities for Communities has meant to a number of our Committee Members including Serena Goh, Rebecca Hansson, James Simmons and Phil Wing. Derek Ebbs gave a brief overview of the story of our log (you can read about that on our 'About Us' page and we concluded the night with the premier of the film of the January 2010 Immersion Trip, introduced by film maker Kim Akhurst. All up in 2009, we held 18 events with around 10,000 participants, and assisted by 704 volunteers. The amount we transferred to our partner communities (Rainbow Village in South Vietnam and Lucas Gardens School in Five Dock was $244,230 for the year. Our income for the year was $214, 743 and we operated with less than 1% of that as expenses - mostly due to the fact that we run 100% of volunteer manpower and also through the generosity of our sponsors. Thank you again everyone for your amazing support! Here are some photos below of the night...
 
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 2010 'Get to know us' Drinks night, 31 May, PJ Gallagher's
 One of the best features of Communities for Communities is the way that many supporters connect with us - and we receive lots of enquiries from people who are interested in getting involved with us as volunteers. So to provide a way to meet our prospective volunteers - and to give them the opportunity to find out some more about what we do - we hosted a drinks night at PJ Gallagher's. It was a relaxed and friendly way for several of our existing volunteers to catch up, and to meet a great bunch of new people who are interested in taking part. We look forward to hosting another of these events later this year. If you would like to come along, please email info@communitiesforcommunities.com.au. Our thanks to PJ's for supplying the nibbles for this event and for always making us very welcome in their great meeting space. 


2010 Red Shield Appeal, 30 May
A record 326 volunteers turned out to help with the doorknock appeal for the Salvation Army. We covered the area of Canada Bay and our volunteers collected $91,000 which will go towards the many good works done by the Salvos. Thank you to everyone who helped out on foot or back at headquarters at Rosebank College. A special thanks to the 150 local school students from Domremy, Rosebank and St Patrick's College who took part - it was fantastic to have your help! 

2010 Trivia Night, 26 March, Concord RSL

Around 250 people joined in the fun at our 9th Annual Trivia Night where we raised more than $18,000 to help support communities in need in Cebu in the Philippines and Rainbow Village in South Vietnam. We are very grateful to the dozens of businesses and individuals who made it possible to have a substantial prize pool on the night. A particular thank you to our major sponsors for the night: Concord Golf Club, Eurobyte IT, Ben Nossiter, the Woods Family, Nestle, the Roberts Family, Tim Casey, Vision Personal Training  Five Dock and Eminence IT. A big thank you too to our quizmaster Stephen Barbuto and our auctioneer Charlie Powell. It was a fantastic and relaxed night of fun and community.

Here are some photos from the night:

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2010 International Women's Day Breakfast, 9 March, Canada Bay Club
We were thrilled to have around 170 people turn out for an inspiring breakfast in honour of International Women's Day. This event - which we hosted in partnership with the City of Canada Bay Council - drew women (and several men) from all over the area, including a large contingent of students from local schools. Guest speaker Ronni Kahn, the founder and CEO of OzHarvest told her story of how she overcame many obstacles to establish her charity which now feeds many thousands of people in need every day - drawing on food supplies donated by supermarkets, restaurants and other food outlets. 

"Twenty two years ago when I came to make a new home in this country I could never have imagined the path would lead me here. I urge you all to find your own path to give back to our community and this incredible land. Together we can make Australia an even better place," said Ronni. 

2010 Golf Day, 28 January, Concord Golf Club

A full field of golfers enjoyed a very pleasant day out at the picturesque Concord Golf Club. Playing conditions were wonderful and we adjourned for drinks and dinner back at the clubhouse. This day was especially memorable because at the dinner, President Lance Brooks was able to announce that we had crossed the $1M mark in terms of fundraising since Communities for Communities began back in 2002. It was great to be able to celebrate this achievement with our many supporters who had helped us to get there! 

Another highlight was the fantastic presentation by Paralympian gold medallist, Kurt Fearnley who spoke about his journey to being an elite sportsman and also his recent conquest of the Kokoda Trail. 

Tony Woods also told us about the success of the recent Immersion Trip to Rainbow Village in South Vietnam which included a record number of young people as participants.

We are very grateful to all of our sponsors on the day, our enthusiastic volunteers (including the Cancer Council volunteers) and all of the staff at Concord Golf Club who made sure we were well looked after and that the course was in top condition as always.  

Here are some shots from the day...
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Immersion Trip to Rainbow Village,  8 - 18 January 

In January 2010, 22 representatives of Communities for Communities travelled to Rach Gia to participate in the Rainbow Village project. The team worked with the local Habitat for Humanity team, members of the Rainbow Village community and the commercial contractor in the construction of the third block of 12 houses. The team was also fortunate to be present when five families were presented with their keys to houses in the second block of 12 which were worked on by the C4C team which visited in April 2009. All completed houses in the Rainbow Village project are now occupied.

The team forged stronger relationships with the Rainbow Village community through participating in a range of events held at the Catalyst Foundation School just up the road from the building site. This included a feast prepared by the local community following the presentation of six computers donated through the Emagine Foundation run by Dr Sam Prince and the big blow-up screen which featured at C4C carols' functions, which was kindly donated to Rainbow Village by Big Screen Productions and Adam Lever. The big screen is expected to be a focal point for future community activities having already started with Tom and Jerry cartoons and karaoke.

C4C has the opportunity to further strengthen our relationship with Habitat, Catalyst and the Rainbow Village community through the next planned visit in July 2010.

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Last Updated 17-Aug-2010 10:05 AM