Chappy Chat September 2022
Learning Community
Since the start of Term 3, our young people have enjoyed some wonderful opportunities out and about in Rainbow Beach and further afield.
One of the highlights was a bike ride from the Community Centre to the Breeze Caravan Park at Carlo Point where the children had a great time on the jumping pillow and lunch at the new indoor camp kitchen.
Tennis has been another fun activity and we would like to thank the Sports Club for allowing us to use their facilities at no charge.
A recent wildflower walk near Bombala Crescent was a wonderful opportunity to see how many wildflowers were scattered through the bush that flourish during August and September. The Cooloola Wildflowers booklet created by Cooloola Coastcare can be purchased from the Rainbow Beach Community Centre and will show you where the best walks are.
A visit by Councillor Jess Milne was very enlightening as she explained her role on the Gympie Council and the responsibilities of the different levels of government. She is also an excellent storyteller!
We were finally able to visit Cooloola Berries after all the rain and loved learning how to grow this delectable fruit during our farm tour with Jason – the strawberry ice creams were great too!
Curtis and Gareth from the Gympie Library were impressed with how the older children worked with the younger ones learning how to master robotics.
We have an exciting project happening in collaboration with Cooloola Coastcare where we are creating a life-size wire sculpture of a turtle that will be decorated with coloured bottle lids.
With Council’s permission, we are hoping to place the sculpture and two recycling garbage bins on the Rainbow Beach foreshore to encourage tourists and locals to recycle their drink containers.
Money raised from recycling the drink containers will assist Cooloola Coastcare to continue their vital work of caring for the turtles that come ashore at Rainbow Beach to lay their eggs.
Our young people have been designing eye-catching flyers to hand out to local businesses asking them to save their bottle lids that will become part of the sculpture.
The Learning Community families are looking forward to a three-day/two-night camping trip to K’gari in October, staying at the Beachcamp Retreat at Eurong Village.
There will be around 55 adults and children in the group, with several families new to the area visiting the island for the first time. It will be a wonderful learning experience for everyone with the opportunity to spend time with local Parks & Wildlife rangers high on the list of possible activities.
Community Pantry
Foodbank Qld has continued to provide locals with a great variety of items in their $10 hampers that are distributed on Thursdays from the Rainbow Beach Community Centre car park.
Our team of willing helpers work hard unpacking the pallet brought down by Rainbow Beach Transport (free of charge) as quickly as possible. There is often a good selection of products from Woolworths Cooloola that have been a welcome addition to the items from Foodbank that often come in catering size ensuring they will last for a while.
Demand has dropped off a little over the past few weeks, so we are going to trial distributing the hampers every fortnight instead of every week.
To keep up with when they are available, please like our Facebook page – Rainbow Beach Community Pantry – and we will remind you in the week before delivery.