After some concerns about the weather earlier in the week, we were fortunate to have fine conditions for the start of our annual pilgrimage to collect Christmas trees for our club fundraiser. As usual, Aldo and Rob did us proud with a great selection of 250 trees, including a special allocation of 60 of the biggest trees we have seen for a number of years. Thankfully, we had Aisea “Wise” Naulago, generously made available by Roger Iacobucci (Trees R Us and club Life Member), to help with the heavy lifting. We are very grateful to another Life member, Alan Steel, for organizing transport and logistics, and Monty Higginson-Ford, Victor Murray, Bennie and Stefan van der Merwe, and Aldo for loading trees. Sadly, by the time we got to Burkie’s Bakery in Woodend, the lamb, gravy and mint sauce rolls had sold out! However, steak and onion pies were the order of the day, snot blocks aplenty, and I can recommend the blueberry muffins.
Just like last year, we had miserable weather most of Saturday for our first day of sales. Not a great first day – 87 trees sold – but very strong demand for our big trees lifted our averages (there was also a bit of demand for Wise!) A fine day Sunday and being the first of December, many people were out looking for a Christmas tree, resulting in a great day of sales, with a tally of 224 over the weekend. This could only be achieved through the dedicated efforts of our club volunteers covering a variety of activities including early-morning positioning of signs, sales, deliveries, and volunteer nourishment (Ange’s servings a hit with volunteers and the occasional lucky customer). A big thanks to Alan, Roger, Victor, Wise, Sylvia Metcalfe, Ange Southwood, Shane Slater, Xavier Kvalic, Russ, Cath and Ben Hurdle, Monty, Lloyd Thomas (amazing commitment, travelling up from Port Melbourne), Ollie Loughlin, Bennie and Stefan, Scott Jasch, Nick, Louise and Emilia Howden.
It all starts again next week….and we are desperately short of volunteer help, especially for deliveries. The money raised goes to our/your club, so please make the effort and donate some time. Sign up at the following link (https://volunteersignup.org/WPAFD) or contact our new club Secretary, Alicia Loughlin (email hidden; JavaScript is required) or me (email hidden; JavaScript is required) directly.
Tim Adams – Presidents
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