Parents & Friends Committee
Wrap up from the 2017 'Blokes BBQ'
Report by Katrien, Megan and Georgette, Parents and Friends Committee
What a morning it was at NMPS on Friday 1st of September!
There was a huge turn out of 'blokes' and their kids for breakfast on the the glorious first day of Spring - dads, granddads, uncles, neighbours, carers. In all, the breakfast was a great success, thanks to our wonderful community.
Feeding approximately 1,000 people before school is huge job, but with so many volunteers it didn't feel like hard work. Thank you everyone who came and helped, you were amazing!
Thanks to everyone who helped, including Brent, Ori, alex and David on the BBQ. Sarah, Kayo, Mandy, Christine, Julia, Laura, Gen and Jed, the feeders and money handlers. And Leonie and David for setting up and packing afterwards. We appreciate you giving your time and effort - you did a truly amazing job.
A very special thanks goes to Grace Kim, who with her trusted food processor, chopped 10kg of onions. And let's not forget the teachers who helped out, Paul let us in at 6am, Tyson and Tali for organising the Best Dad Joke competition with the kids - everyone was highly entertained and Viv and Matt for selling raffle tickets. Thanks so much!
We received great support from the following local businesses:
- Baker's Delight on Errol Street
- Ferguson Plarre on Errol Street
- IGA on Flemington Road
Also the wonderful traders at the Queen Victoria Market:
- Jenkins Quality Meats
- Pavilion select produce
- La Deli
- The Apple Corner
- The Onion and Potato man in B-shed
Please thank them next time you shop with them. Without their generous donations and discounts we couldn't keep prices low and make a great profit. Overall, we raised over $4,000. This money will go to the fantastic Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.
Alex Karbon were our main raffle sponsor, providing wonderful prizes and coming to school assembly to draw the raffle in front of some very excited children. Also a big thank you to the Delmont family for donating a whole case of special brew.
The winners of the raffle prizes were very happy indeed, including:
- Ipad mini - Alex W, 1D
- $200 JB-Hi voucher - Emily, 4D
- $100 auction rooms voucher - Greg Martin
- Fixation Brewing box of beer - Chau Tang
- Meal for 4 from the Roller door cafe - Alice, 3A
- Invictvs Eau De toilette - N. Pavitra
- Diesel BAD Eau De Toilette - Benji Lim
We also want thank the North Melbourne Rotary Club, who lend us their trailer which included an amazing amount of essential equipment, Leonie and I had a great girl power moment towing it out of a very narrow lane way :-)
And thanks to beautiful connections with St Mary's Kindergarten, we were allowed to use their BBQ toolbox. We were so prepared.
The queue for coffee was enormous, North and West Melbourne people must truly love their coffee in the morning. Miss Love a Coffee kept her cool and served every last person in that queue which was an amazing effort. A better solution for next year is already in the making.
As the event and our school keeps growing, it is not so easy to accurately estimate numbers for ordering. We didn't run out of anything (phew) and all our surplus was donated to St Mary's House of Welcome in Fitzroy, where chef Dougie will turn it into delicious meals for vulnerable and homeless people in our city. Our donation was greatly appreciated, but really, they helped us out, we could have had to eat sausages all spring.
Thank you again for your continued support of the Parents and Friends events - through these events we can continue to grow our community spirit.
The Parents and Friends Committee are mums with kids at NMPS. If you feel you could give us a hand with the next event, please attend a P & F meeting. Dads are also very welcome!
Our next meeting is in the second week of term 4, Tuesday 17 October, 7pm in the Staff Room.
Reflection on the Annual Blokes' Breakfast
Amanda, mum of Felix, Year 6, Griff, Year 3 & Nimmy, Foundation
Over our many years at NMPS we've seen our annual "bring a bloke breakfast " change from something similar to a casual backyard BBQ, to an event which has required BBQ organisation skills beyond expectations, to cater for many hungry (increasingly bearded) dads. Our family has experienced the breakfast from many angles depending on who's been able to go (including my dad, myself and finally this year James!). No matter who has been "our bloke", we've always felt very much part of the day.
One thing, however, hasn't changed and that is the wonderful sense of community that these days bring, the Parents and Friends Committee, staff and volunteers bring these days to life and bring us all together. We are always ever so grateful
And yes, the queues are getting a bit bigger these days but that is where we have met some wonderful dads over the years which is what it's all about, as well as giving our kids lifetime memories.