Illawarra Christmas 2023
12 December 2023 / Words: Senia Gaunson Photos: Bryan Shedden and Senia Gaunson
January 2023 - we booked a beautiful scout lodge in the Mt Keira national park. Everyone was excited, we had looked forward to getting this venue for a long time.
Fast forward - end November 2023, the lodge is shut down due to plumbing problems. Two weeks away from our Christmas Party, what to do? Move it to the Lake of course, our back yard in fact! Can't be that much in it, after all we have a huge back yard, can't be that hard. Famous last words! Marquees arrive late, 70% chance of rain predicted, gale force winds the night before the event, take down the marquees. Sunday morning, the wonderful neighbours, Bernadette and Peter knock at the door at 7am, "we're here to help put the marquees back up", and they did! No rain and most of the wind has gone. A shiny, beautiful morning on Lake Illawarra.
The caterers arrive with delicious foods, ready to put in the spit oven, the gas keeps going off, will there be cooked food? Bob comes to the rescue, McGyver has nothing on him! A gadget is made to keep the gas flowing, food is finally cooking.
My elves, Brigid, Lena and Wes arrive and suddenly the yard is transformed into Christmas fairy land, the tables are covered in crisp white cloths with Santas, baubles and red and gold birds everywhere. We're ready.
Our guests arrive and are served chilled Champagne by the head waiter, Brigid and her assisting waiter, Wes. Food starts to come out, and just doesn't stop. Johnny from Coast to Coast the Golden Roast has overcome adversity and provided us with delectable canapes, roast meats, salads and veggies that just keep coming. If anyone went home hungry today, they just weren't trying. After several serves of dessert, we were ready for our presentations.
We thanked all our wonderful helpers for their contribution to numerous runs provided through 2023 with a First Aid Kit, purchased with the help of our IIllawarra Sponsors, Wollongong Mazda, who also provided us with a merchandise kit to raffle at today's event. Our raffle raised over $500 for Careflight, an amazing effort by all present.
Once the helpers were acknowledged, came time for our major presentations, we had some very special presentations to make today as our guests included the Club Member of the Year, Club Runner-up Member of the Year and Club New Member of the Year. But first, the Illawarra award recipients were recognised.
We were pleased to welcome some members we hadn't seen for a while who were eligible for tenure awards, hopefully we'll see a lot more of them next year.
5 Year Tenure Awards were presented to Trevor and Mary Gillett and John and Chrissie Zaremba
10 Year Tenure Awards were presented to Tony and Jennifer Heathwood, Jan and Garry Gibson and Lena and Wes Hill
MXV Award was presented to Phil Reid
Illawarra Member of the Year Award was presented to Franchesca and Ian Fenn
Illawarra New Member of the Year Award was presented to Tony and Jeanette Cox
Illawarra Motorsport Member of the Year was won by Gai Tarrant (who was not present)
Ian Combes then presented the MOTY Awards for the entire Club:
Club Member of the Year to Anda and Brian Clayton who were the founding members of the South Coast Chapter and 2016 Illawarra New Member of the Year.
Club Runner-up Member of the Year to Brigid McCarthy
Club New Member of the Year to Franchesca and Ian Fenn (for someone that had never won anything, they cleaned up!)
Our hearty congratulations go to all these worthy recipients.
A wonderful day shared with friends, old and new. Christmas at the Lake turned out to be full of fun, laughter and chatter.
Lots of photos in the attached album, hope you enjoy.
Senia Gaunson - Illawarra Chapter Convenor
