CHAPPY CHAT – June 2023
Rainbow Beach Learning Community
Term 2 has started well with several new families attending our activities from as far away as Kandanga.
Recently we were invited to take a behind-the-scenes tour of our local IGA with store manager Kristy providing us with great insight into where their produce is sourced from and how it is stored.
The children spent the coldest few minutes of their life inside the freezer room at -20 degrees and were allowed to operate the cash registers under Kristy’s instruction, even serving some customers. It was a little overwhelming for some who wanted to know why the children weren’t in school, while others were delighted to see them being treated to their first taste of work experience.
Kristy and her team provided a delicious morning tea and each child received a bag of goodies as a memento of their visit. Thank you to Bernie and Matt who were happy for us to visit, and to Kristy for her patience and kindness to each child.
Another great excursion was to the Cooloola Coast Bowls Club who again were extremely generous with their time and expertise and provided a sausage sizzle lunch for the children and parents, many of whom had not bowled before.
The Club runs a ‘come and try afternoon’ for anyone who would like to spend a fun couple of hours trying their best to get close to the tiny white balls! These are held on Fridays from 3.30pm, which can be followed up by one of the very reasonably-priced meals from the great menu. If you would like more information, please contact Graham on 0409 325 987.
Our recent camp at the Aldershot Scout Campgrounds just north of Maryborough was a huge success with 32 children and 17 parents enjoying a wide range of activities including canoeing, learning bushcraft, using compasses, rope work, damper making, a scavenger hunt, and how to take care of their own health and fitness.
On our second day we visited the Flying High Bird Park at Apple Tree Creek, just north of Childers, where most of the children loved having the brightly coloured birds land on them and being able to feed deer, llamas, alpacas, emus, and ostriches. On the way back to camp we stopped for a delicious homemade ice cream from Mammino’s at the Childers Golf Course.
Pedal car racing was a huge hit with some of the young people out on the track at 6am. At the end of camp, the heats were heavily contested with Ellie as the 9 and under Camp Pedal Car Racing Champion and Zen winning the 10 and over Grand Final.
This month we are looking forward to another visit from Gabriella and her team from the Tin Can Bay CWA, Curtis and Gareth from the Gympie Library with their robotics and drones, Rowena and her team from Bunnings who will be helping us build tables with power tools, a representative of ANARRA Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation sharing about how to care for sick and injured animals, and to wind up the term, a visit to a dairy farm at Goomboorian finishing with a scrumptious lunch at Sublime Brewery.
2023 Bush Dance – mark Saturday 16 September in your diary!
The 2023 Bush Dance is happening at the Rainbow Beach Community Centre, again featuring the brilliant band Flashjack who helped make last year’s dance so much fun with mums, dads, children and grandparents unable to resist their foot-tapping music.
Dancing with band members calling out the different moves will happen between 6 and 8pm, with hot and cold food available from 5pm and a delicious supper from 8 to 9pm.
Tickets are available from the Community Centre office or from Tyla on 0432 651 722, priced at $40 for a family, $15 for adults, and $10 for children. Grazing platters will also be available and can be pre-ordered from Tyla with platters for 2-3 people costing $25 and platters for 4-6 people costing $35.
Community Pantry
Our wonderful volunteers Suellen, Belinda, Shaz, and Kerry are distributing around 36 hampers each fortnight made up of pantry items and fresh fruit and veggies from Foodbank Brisbane and a huge range of end of stock items from Woolworths Cooloola, ranging from body products to lollies to frozen goods.
Hampers are available to anyone who needs one for $10 and are worth between $50 and $60 – a pension or healthcare card is not required. To order a hamper for yourself or someone who needs a helping hand, you can contact us by text to 0413 135 867 or hop onto the Rainbow Beach Community Pantry Facebook page and send us a message.