CHAPPY CHAT – January 2023

Learning Community

Children from the Learning Community celebrated the end of an amazing year in December with ‘The Amazing Race – Rainbow Beach style’ which involved completing a list of tasks in the main street including gathering information, collecting items from local businesses and picking up ‘3 for the sea’ – an initiative that Chloe from the Gympie Council shared with us during recycling talks she presented this term.

This of course involves picking up three pieces of rubbish so that it doesn’t end up in the ocean – something that we should all remember to do! Participants in the Amazing Race had a set time limit to complete their tasks but even though the day was a scorcher, the teams ran from clue to clue.

The winning team consisted of team leader Maia, Abby, Mia, and Charlie who finished the race in good time, but most importantly got all the answers correct. Thank you to all of the business owners who kindly allowed the children to ask questions or provided items for collection.

We finished the year with a thank you lunch with gifts for the community volunteers and tutors who shared their expertise throughout the year in the areas of art, sewing, cooking, computers, photography, tie-dying, fitness, and circus skills.

Kerry, who is the facilitator for the Learning Community on Tuesdays, and I were each presented with a voucher from Rainbow Beach Helicopters which we are very excited about – we just have to convince our husbands to come with us!

The Learning Community hosted the children’s corner at the Santa Comes to Rainbow event held on Sunday 11 December, with activities including play dough, craft, colouring, sand and water play, and giant games. A special thank you to Tyla who organised and set up the children’s corner for the steady stream of children who visited the tent during the afternoon.

The Learning Community will be continuing on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Community Centre with many of our families deciding to continue to home school their children in 2023. There are vacancies, so if any families would like their child or children to be involved on either or both days, please contact me at ronnie.timperon@gmail.com or on 0413 135 867.

We have some great activities and outings already lined up for this year and the fee of $10 per child per day with a cap of $20 per family covers costs such as craft supplies, hall hire, and other expenses.

Community Pantry

It was wonderful to be able to hand out 48 Christmas hampers on our last hamper day which included items such as Plumrose tinned ham, chocolates, non-alcoholic wine, and other treats courtesy of Foodbank, Woolworths Cooloola, the Rainbow Beach IGA, and generous locals.

The pantry will be closed over Christmas and the New Year with hampers available again on Thursday 19 January. We will be trialling having the hampers available on a fortnightly basis, so the second hamper day will be Thursday 2 February.

A huge thanks to Suellen, Shaz, Belinda, Kerry, Jodie, and Di who have done an incredible job coordinating, picking up food from Woolies, and packing and distributing the hampers each week.

If you would like to order a hamper, please contact the Rainbow Beach Community Pantry Facebook page or text 0413 135 867.