A Gala to Remember ...But it pays to be prepared!

The Waipu Gala 2015

Easter Weekend in Waipu has become renowned for the Waipu Primary School Festival. Most schools in the Bream Bay District run annual Gala Days, (mainly to raise the necessary funds that the Government do not provide), such as swimming pools and their upkeep , special classrooms for computers or special needs children etc. It is always a battle to come up with exciting ideas that will attract family members and residents of the area to part with the necessary funds required to  facilitate any improvements.

School Annual Festival.

"Early Birds" Setting up.

The Waipu Primary School have come up with a prize winning  formula that just seems to get better each year and here in their own words is how that came about …..

"Not so long ago, the Waipu Primary School PTA held various fundraising events throughout the year. Then it was decided, enough's enough! Let's stop mucking around raising lots of little bits, how about one BIG fundraiser?? So in 2009, the first annual Waipu Easter Carnival was held. The Carnival was a great success and has now become a major community event for Waipu as well as a fantastic fundraiser for the school.

Granddaughter Holly AKA Madam Butterfly

There are a huge range of fun things to participate in and the community and visitors enjoy the day immensly.
Among other things, proceeds from the past have helped fund the new adventure playground, the new sandpit area and surrounds, new computers for the computer room, plants and trees for the school property, sports equipment and ipads and other resources for all the classrooms.

 ALL proceeds go back to the School

 A Memorable Gala Day

During the 1990s I was a proud member of the Waipu Primary School PTA…(Parent Teachers Association) as my youngest daughter Heather was a pupil and I liked to idea of helping the parent Volunteers in this group in their fund raising efforts. I was already on the Waipu Caledonian Society Committee and therefore I could assist and liase in arranging the  annual programme owing to the fact that the Festival is traditionally held on the Caledonian Park.

One year our PTA group included a couple of local entrepreneurs who had a reputation for successful original ideas on fund raising and they formed the nucleus of the Festival programme. One evening we had a brain storming session and ideas came thick and fast and our programme was set with volunteers allocated the numerous activities.

A mini Ferris Wheel (similar)

 I was awarded the "Ferris Wheel" and on the day I dutifully arrived and helped erect what was actually a mini version of the usual fairground wheel.

It looked quite flimsy, but I was assured that it passed all the safety checks and was "ready to roll". Well "roll" it certainly did! Once I had seated the first lot of children and started the motor, the whole structure started a crazy wobble and began to rock from side to side. The entire 1st load of passengers started screaming and yelling and asked to be let off. Unfortunately when I applied the brake, nothing happened and the wheel did another couple of circuits before I could pull the power cord. Once all the children had been lifted out of their seats, the majority ran off looking for their parents. Needless to say the queue of future passengers had disappeared, possibly scared out of their wits in anticipation! … I wrote a large sign saying closed for repairs and set out to see if I could help elsewhere.

Steve (NO1 Entrepreneur) suggested I could either look after the "Horse Square" or the 'Horizontal Bungy". I was advised the horse event involved a horse penned in a large grassed square that had been marked out evenly in white paint squares … patrons paid a gold coin to guess what square the horse would poop into next! … Fascinating idea, but I felt I would be better suited to something less demanding, so I chose the "Horizontal Bungee"

Bungee Cord

This involved a marked lane with hay bales at one end and a length of thick bungee cord. This was tied around a child's waist and they would then run from the start line, down the lane and grab a can of coke that was placed on the middle hay bale. The cord was just long enough that they had to stretch out and grab the can before the cord pulled them back towards the start line. It never dawned on me that although it had been set-up according to instructions, nobody had actually tried it out to see if it worked!...My first daring daredevil was a young Maori boy, aged about 11 years who looked as if he should be the 1st competitor. I tied the bungee cord around his waist and said "GO!" The young lad took off and before I realised what had happened, he reached the can with ease and just plucked the coke off the bale and walked back to the start! .. THE CORD WAS TOO LONG!!

You get the drift?

Just then Steve arrived and explained that he hadn't yet checked the length of the cord and would move the bales to match the length of the bungee cord. By this stage my audience had grown along with a queue of eager coke fanciers. I replaced a new can of coke and tied the cord around the next willing waist and shouted 'GO!" .. The well built lad ran as fast as he could towards the hay bales when all of a sudden he reached the end of the cord and was instantly hurtling backwards towards me .. I jumped out of the road and he roared past me and crashed into the door of a car that was slowly driving past heading for the car park!... There was immediate silence all around as the boy lay where he had landed … the driver  leapt out of the car and surveyed the rear door that had suddenly gained a large dent in the middle … We both rushed to gather around the young fellow who was still wrapped in the bungee cord and hoped that no physical damage had been done … we obviously breed tough blokes in this region because after apologising to the car owner for the damaged door, he enquired if he thought he deserved a free can of coke! … 

I decided to call it quits at this stage and headed for a quiet cup of strong coffee! .. We never did hear from the car owner or their insurance company.

It Pays to try it out FIRST!

FOOTNOTE:

Today I met Steve and reminisced about our days with the Waipu PTA….We had a good laugh and he told me that one enterprising parent suggested we could have a "Mashed Potato Sculpture Event" … bet that would have been fun!