Dear Friends
Please note that our next fund raising, and community building event, the Christmas Market is to be held on Friday 1 December from 4 pm to 7pm. Your help is needed! The event will focus on items that are Christmas gifts.
We need Christmas Cooking (White Christmas, Rocky Road, Gingerbread Cookies, Fudge, Stained Glass Cookies, Cupcakes with Christmas decorations and so on) which would need to be delivered on the morning of 1 Dec. Christmas Cooking might also include chutney, relish or sauces.
We need Christmas gifts that are plants. Ensure that they are in clean, attractive pots and that the plants are flour-ishing. (herbs, summer flowering plants, potted Christmas trees, loose leaf lettuces that would suit a patio or a window sill and so on.)
Christmas Crafted items including Christmas cards, table or tree decorations, decoupage jars and so on. (We have jars available from the Fete). Also if you have gifts that you have received but don’t want, you could donate them to our Recycled Gifts Stall. These items should be in perfect condition. These can be brought in now right up to the day of the market.
If you have other suggestions for what can be sold at the Christmas Markets please get in touch.
During our Market Day there will be Demonstrations of how to make Christmas gifts. At the moment these are Making a Gingerbread House, Making a Christmas Wreath from Succulents and Making Christmas Ornaments from Felt. Musical/dance performances are yet to be confirmed but will take place at intervals through the afternoon.
The dining room will operate in a simplified way. You will pay $20 ‘entry’ and this will include hot and cold finger food and drinks. A sausage sizzle will also be operating and we hope that the smell of cooking onions will draw in passing traffic.
Helpers will be needed for setting up and decorating the Centre on Friday, staffing the stalls, selling raffle tickets, serving food and finally cleaning up. I’ll display lists in the hall to help coordinate when and where volunteers are needed.
In preparation for the event, some craft workshops will be held at the Centre. First one will be 10am on October 8th. Come and join in. You don’t need to be Picasso, some of the items only need green daubs of paint to be trans-formed in Christmas gifts! I will also arrange for tables of craft materials to be accessible so that while you have a coffee you can sit and create Christmas cards or decorations for the Market.
On 16 October there will be an event as part of Get Online Week. Following a talk on ‘Avoiding Scams’ from Cristina Cawkell (Telstra) at 10 am, a team of volunteers from Telstra will be available to advise and support you with any IT issues. We have a small grant and will provide a generous morning tea to attendees.

Our next Birthday lunch is 12 October. Why not join us on that day for a delicious lunch?
Coming up soon is the AGM on 17 October. Lunch is provided from 12.00pm and the meeting commences at 12.30
pm. Nomination forms for the Board are provided with this newsletter and in the foyer. Forms must be submitted
to the special collection box by 16 October.
Looking ahead, the Christmas Lunch will be at the Gungahlin Lakes Golf Club on Thursday 7 December. Cost will be
$30 for a Christmas Buffet meal with dessert. Drinks will be an additional cost. There will be carpooling organised to
ensure all interested members can attended.
The Centre will close on 8 December and reopen 15 January 2024.

Best wishes to all

Andrea Dean

CEO