General News
12 September, 2024
Community rallies
STUDENTS are well on their way to enjoying a new playground thanks to the generosity of local businesses and families.
St Colman’s Primary School drew its annual major school fundraiser last week, which saw 415 tickets sold and around $8800 raised for the school.
St Colman’s Primary School principal Janet Cain said this year’s raffle had seen a change in the first prize to provide the winner with a wide range of options in how they spend their winnings.
“We’re very excited and grateful for the support we got from the community,” she said.
“This year we changed first prize to $3000 in vouchers from a collection of local businesses to help support business owners throughout town.
“We could not have raised such a wonderful amount without the support of the local community, and a lot of businesses got behind us, in addition to lots of friends and families of our students, and the wider community in general.
“To raise $8800 is such an incredible result for such a small school community.”
The major prize of $3000 in vouchers to spend at a range of Mortlake businesses was won by the Palmer family, who celebrated using a voucher to buy dinner at Mac’s Hotel.
The second prize, a $1000 Neighbourhood Benefits Card from Acciona Energía to be spent at businesses throughout Mortlake and Terang, was won by Peggy Bannister.
The third prize, a $500 voucher to spend at Bates IGA, was won by Peter Moloney.
But the biggest winner in the raffle was the students, with the school preparing to dedicate the funds towards the installation of a new playground.
“This build will be in addition to our current playground, which will be more user friendly for some of the little ones,” Mrs Cain said.
“Some of the current playground is quite high and quite big.
“Every second Friday we have our playgroup for pre-schoolers, Little Colman’s Playtime, so the playground isn’t quite suitable for them or the little kids when they first start at school.
“It’s a boat-themed playground, and while we haven’t quite got all the money for it yet, we’re hoping to do a Bunnings sausage sizzle later in the year which we hope, with our own funds, will see us in position to install the playground next year.”
Mrs Cain thanked the school community families, friends and the wider community for purchasing tickets, and the students for their efforts to sell tickets.
The raffle was launched in 2021 as the school’s major fundraiser, and has helped the school to fund a new soft surface basketball court, undercover area and electronics upgrades for the students.