Bringing a new school and a new community together

 WOW, what a fantastic day. The theme was "Getting to Know You" - pulling the school, the community, business's and Rotary together.

The Stonefields Fair was held on Saturday 27 October; the weather was kind to us, turning into a very hot day. The fair was held as a community project in conjunction with Stonefields School and took 9 months from conception to fruition. The day was a great success with the fair being opened by the electorate MP, Simon O’Connor. There was a huge turnout of people from far and wide. A 5 year child turned the corner of the building and was heard to say ”OH MY GOODNESS, what have they done to my school?” There was all the sweet and food stalls from Stonefields School and St Johns Rotary organising and manning all the other events.

The Bouncy castle, under water aquarium and Old MacDonald’s farm, where children could pat farm animals and ride ponies, proved to be a great success, which left both children and St John Rotary members manning the events, all exhausted. Well done Peter and your team.

Alex G did a sterling solo job on the HuckFinn fishing contest, which was a big attraction for the younger kids. We even got Simon O’Connor and Cameron Brewer to do a fish off.

Underpinning the whole event was the entertainment. What a wonderful job this team did, headed by Slavica and Simon and what great talent we have out there. This was splendidly managed by our fantastic master of ceremony – Jo Holley.

Sprinkled between the entertainment programme was the fundraising Rotary spinning wheel, ably run by Chris and his team. This fundraising was only possible by the support from local businesses such as New World, Mitre10, Bunnings, Smart Marine, Wet & Forget.

Animates were another great success with many vouchers and products being given away and Margaret nearly coming home with a gorgeous Jack Russell called Max.

Tom and his team did a great job in pulling the sports teams into the community. These groups put up some generous silent auction prizes.

Denise and her team were very successful in pulling together local interests such as  Auckland University Tamaki Campus, Remuera Golf Club and Dove House.

Beryl and Colin manned the Rotary table with the assistance of an emergency tent and had videos to demonstrate what Rotary does. There were plenty of interested parties for Beryl to follow up with.

DG Ron Seeto also joined us at the event, which was great to see, and much appreciated given his large workload.

In the financial Engine Room we had Alex Mc and his team doing a sterling job ably supported by ASB at Lunn Avenue . We had Adian, the branch manager and two of his staff being present all day to support the event and offering efpos facility. The bank sorted all floats prior to the event and provided aprons for members to use as money pouches on the day. Adian also went with Alex to the bank to weigh and count the takings, making the process easier for everyone.

The school did a fantastic job in supplying and managing all food stalls, with a diverse range of food on sale.

While a big thank you goes to all the club for pulling together to make this day such a success I would like to particularly thank two people - Graham Fabian for supporting the event from the outset with $5,000 New World sponsorship which allowed the club to continue with the idea, knowing that costs were covered and Donald Bowie for all his organisation skills, in coordinating us all and keeping us on task.

A huge thank you goes to our other sponsors, who did not have a direct involvement on the day but who made financial contributions, these include Todd Property, Fletcher Residential, Barfoot & Thompson and White Cross Healthcare.

This event achieved all that we set out to do:

1 Connect with the Stonefields School and its community                     
2 Raise our Rotary profile in our community                                                     
3 Connect with local businesses                                                                           
4 Raise funds for our Youth Rotary projects

We should all be proud of our efforts, thanks to everyone for all your hard work.  

For a full set of pictures go to http://imagesbybrucehancock.com/stonefields-community-fair-27-october-2012/

This is another example of St Johns Rotary being active in the community.  Enquiries for membership or just to support the club can be made by phoning Beryl 021 652 802

A huge thanks go to the community-minded sponsors of this Fair:

Gold Sponsor: StoneFields New World, Lunn Ave
Silver (funding): Todd Properties, Fletcher Homes, Barfoot & Thompson, WhiteCross
Bronze (goods): Mitre 10, Bunnings, Smart Marine; Animates
Many Sports Clubs who gave vouchers for the silent auction