Due to sickness and many members unable to attend, we cancelled our May Meeting. However, four of us attended State Conference at Coffs Harbour where our small branch gained some prizes at State Level.
It was thrilling for us three weary travellers to arrive on the Sunday at lunchtime to see Bev Frohling there waiting for us, and able to tell us all we needed to do. I can tell you it’s a long way in a bus, so it was lovely that Bev knew exactly what we had to do when we got there. The rain was pouring down a lot of the time, but we were very lucky that most times it stopped for us to get on and off our bus.
Our congratulations to Lyn Lieschke for once again taking out first prize with her Plain Butter Cake! To win that, two years running at State level is nothing short of amazing. Whilst the “three Lyn’s” didn’t do as well this year, we did all get something – me a third prize with the Plum Pudding and Nett’s Granddaughter, Jess, getting an Encouragement Award for her decorated cakes!
Incidentally, these were the only prizes that Riverina Group got in Land Cookery, so good on Pleasant Hills! Whilst our Group Prize-winning entry in the Glasses cases didn’t win, we were still proud of our entry.
The other exciting thing was that our Pleasant Hills Primary School got third in the State with their Power Point Presentation, so that also caused us huge excitement, with their story on “My Home”. The State International Officer has turned all the power point presentations into books to be sent to the Island children who don’t have books.
The guest speakers were great, including Adam DeMamiel, Co-Founder, CEO and Director, Boys to the Bush from Albury. The Keynote Speaker at the Opening ceremony, Mr Samuel Johnson OAM – Founder of Love Your Sister, Gold Logie-winning actor and Victorian Australian of the Year 2018 was an exceptional speaker and gave a very moving address about his battle trying to raise money to find a cure for his sister’s cancer. We will have a fund-raiser and try to raise $1000.00 for him. The State gave him $5000.00 towards his cause.
The Governor of NSW - our Patron, gave us a very humorous address, also letting us know just how important the work of the CWA is to Australia. Lisa Millar, host of ABC News and the Narrator of Muster Dogs, was another great guest speaker, also selling and signing her new book.
We purchased some CWA Cookbooks for re-sale, so we have these on hand if anyone would like one – they are $20 each.
The first motion passed was a motion of urgency about Domestic Violence. $52,700 was raised last year by the members for the State Medical Research Project, Ovarian Cancer. Pancreatic Cancer will be the Medical Research Project for the next year.
We purchased some small booklets with the Land Cookery Schedules and some suggested recipes. We will start our Land Cookery competition this year with a Sultana Cake, cooked in a 20 cm tin.
We also had a Riverina Group Council on Monday, 27th May, with 3 members attending. Next meeting will be on Wednesday, 12th June at the Commercial Club in Albury, starting at 10.30am.
Lyn Jacobsen, CWA