CHAPPY CHAT – March 2023

Learning Community

We have had a wonderful start to 2023 with eight new families from Cooloola Cove, Tin Can Bay, Kia Ora, and Goomboorian joining our Rainbow Beach families as part of the Learning Community.

This brings numbers up to around 28 children aged between 5 and 14 getting together on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Rainbow Beach Community Centre for a range of activities including: hula hooping; cooking; researching the history of Rainbow Beach; art with our fabulous tutor Mo Riggs; craft; learning about different cultures of the world through visiting speakers; learning Spanish; and going to the gym and beach with Sarah of Rainbow Beach Learn to Surf.

In February we had another informative visit by Chloe from the Gympie Council who shared lots of practical information about what can and can’t be recycled – did you know that anything smaller than the palm of your hand can’t be recycled? This will be followed up by a visit to the Hervey Bay Recycling Facility in early March to see what happens to our rubbish once it is collected by the Council’s rubbish trucks.

Our group will be participating in Clean Up Australia (which normally happens on Sunday 5 March) with their own cleanup of the area near the SLS tower on Tuesday 7 March.

An exciting addition to our curriculum this year is an invitation given to the Gympie Homeschooling Community to join us twice a term so that local children and parents can expand their circle of friendship and support with other like-minded families.

Our first event took place on Thursday 23 February with some fun get-to-know-you games and also a workshop run by the Gympie Bone Museum that explored bones from a variety of species and how they were different. Children were able to use microscopes to look at the bones in closer detail.

The Gympie Bone Museum is run by local science technicians and educational cadaver suppliers Jaimie and Debra Cook who opened the museum to the public in 2019 and is located at the Gympie Woodwork Museum if you would like to visit. In the afternoon the group headed to our beautiful beach for some water fun.

We are continuing to work with Cooloola Coast TurtleCare, using Topsy the Turtle who was created by our group last year from recycled wire, an old crab pot, and lots of plastic bottle tops as a means to raise funds for this vital work.

Topsy will be the star attraction at a location in Rainbow Beach still to be confirmed where recycling bins will be strategically placed to allow locals and tourists to deposit their bottles and cans to raise money for Turtlecare. So watch this space!

Sandcastle Competition

The date for the annual Rainbow Beach Sandcastle Competition is fast approaching and will be held on Wednesday 5 April on the beach north of the SLS tower. Registration is from 8.30am and teams will have two hours from 9-11am to create their masterpieces.

Aaron from Sandshapers of Noosa will again be present to amaze us with another of his works of art and perform the difficult job of judging the best entry in each of 4 categories which are: most lifelike animal, most lifelike sea creature, a miscellaneous category, and People’s Choice where anyone on the beach during the morning can vote for their favourite sand creation.

In the past local businesses have been very generous in donating prizes for the winning teams and if you are a local business and would like to be involved, please contact me on 0413 135 867.

Mark the date in your diary and even if you don’t want to be part of a team, come down to the beach for a wonderful morning of fun, friendship, and fresh air. BBQ sausages and drinks will be for sale from 10am.

Thank you to Cooloola Coast Realty, Rainbow Beach Realty, Century 21, and Rainbow Beach Community News for supporting us to make this event happen.

Community Pantry

Foodbank Qld knows only too well how many Queenslanld families are doing it tough. They source 14 millions kilograms of food from farmers, manufacturers, and retailers each year and distribute this food to over 300 food relief charities such as our Community Pantry, and 300 School Breakfast Programs statewide from their warehouse in Brisbane. This reduces landfill and CO2 emissions by 26 million kilograms each year.

The number of clients accessing the Community Pantry since we reopened in January on a fortnightly basis at the Community Centre is now almost back to pre-Christmas numbers which is great to see, but we are able to provide more hampers if needed.

As prices increase and food shortages become more common, our $10 hampers are a great source of basic pantry items that are good to have on hand. They include a variety of tinned veggies (such as tomatoes, peas, and corn), pasta, rice, stir-fry and pasta sauces, savoury biscuits, and condiments which would cost between $50 and $60 on the supermarket shelves.

Fruit and veggies that do not require refrigeration are also available as our wonderful transport companies McClintock’s Transport and Rainbow Beach Transport do not use refrigerated trucks. Foodbank Brisbane sources these from local farmers who may have a glut or for some reason are having trouble moving their produce, so we never know beforehand what will turn up with our order.

Woolworths Cooloola also provides goods that are nearing their best-before date or that are no longer stocked by the store. Again, we never know what will be available, but are happy that these items can be used by our clients and don’t end up in landfill!

If you would like to receive a hamper which cost $10 or know of someone that you could bless with a helping hand, please send a message via the Rainbow Beach Community Pantry Facebook page or send a text to 0413 135 867 to be added to our list of clients.