Kookaburra Society - Debut Dinner 5th May, 2007

Saturday 5th May 2007 saw the debut of the Kookaburra Society’s annual dinner. The Coventry Holiday Inn saw previous Oz kids come from far and wide to join in the Joshua Foundation action. Oz kids and their guests were welcomed into the Lyons Suite at 7.30pm by Sarah Cornelius CEO and Jennifer Howlett; Chairperson of the Kookaburra Committee, alongside the blow-up Kangaroos. As the huge Aussie flags fluttered, the room looked wonderful as each table was named after a famous Australian and had multi-coloured bouquets of Joshua Foundation balloons as the centre piece, this was accompanied by a mini Aussie flag, a native koala and a Joshua Foundation pen!

An introduction from Jen began the evening, shortly followed by a game of comical heads and tails where the winner won a box of Tim Tams. The room was then silenced while video presentations of children who the Joshua Foundation had previously helped were shown emphasising our reason for the dinner. Previous ‘Oz trips’ were also showcased. Following this, a delicious meal of melon starter, chicken main course and a scrumptiously marvellous apple pie with ice cream filled everyone’s bellies. Sarah Cornelius then extended her thanks to the guests and especially Oz kids who have impacted in their various ways upon the Joshua Foundation. Raffle tickets had been sold throughout the evening by our vice-chairperson Sarah Lee and was probably the longest raffle ever held as there were over 20 prizes up for grabs, including hair salon vouchers, an in car hands-free kit, boxes of chocolates, caseloads of wine and even a holiday in Fishguard!

After many moons the raffle ended; ‘I could have danced all night’ was performed by our very own delightful committee senior treasurer-Naomi Davies. The chairperson then dazzled us with her talents too. The after-dinner quiz was then battled to the death (nearly) but was eventually won by the ‘Minogue’ table who knew the answer to the ultimate tie-breaker question - congratulations to them as they won a bottle of champagne!

An ‘Award ceremony’ rounded up the evening’s not-so-formal-formalities whereby the Joshua Foundation gave out special prizes for previous Oz Kids and how they had been remembered from their Oz trip. Prizes included the ‘chatty chatty’ award, ‘it’s on my to-do list’, ‘biggest ever fundraisers’ and ‘the Ray Mears survival’ award. The DJ then leapt into action (in a fashion), producing the best cheese you’ve ever heard. The Grease mega-mix was a hot favourite on the dance-floor, as were Aussie pop-stars, Kylie’s locomotion swung many hips. The dancing continued until half one in the morning when some people retired to their chambers and others remained in the guests bar until 3, 4 and 5 o’clock. All in all the evening was a roaring success and we very much look forward to the next knees up - be there or be square.

And finally, the committee would like to say a big thank-you to Hannah who organised this fabulous event.