EVENTS
2006 Sydney Inaugural Yalari Fundraising Dinner
What an outstanding success! Yalari's Inaugural Fundraising Dinner held in February 2006 surpassed all expectations by raising over $300,000.
With a wonderful team behind and in front of the scenes and 310 great guests, it easily lived up to its theme of "A Very Special Night".
After 8 months of organizing, cajoling, negotiating and just sheer hard work, this very special Yalari night all came together and fell into place beautifully.
Thank you so much to everybody who contributed their time, energy, ideas, and creativity to this event. When I first put my hand up to co-ordinate the fundraiser I really had no idea what lay ahead. Sometimes it was challenging and sometimes it was frustrating, but mostly it was satisfying and fun to gather a group of dynamic and very different personalities together and share a goal of just wanting to pitch in and contribute to an extremely worthy project.
Consequently, there were many discussions along the way about our country's history, the current state of the nation, and how essentially education is the vital key. There are far more Australians than you can imagine who are so keen to help our Indigenous community but who aren't quite sure how. When people learn about Yalari and what we are doing, more often than not, the response is positive and they want to get involved in some way.
The atmosphere at the fundraising dinner was full of this buzz.
'A Very Special Night' was held at St Ignatius College Riverview in Sydney, which was kindly made available to us by the Head Master Shane Hogan. Ramsay Hall was an ideal location with its views of the City, huge stage and terrific catering facilities.
The wonderful variety of entertainment spanned from Will Barton on the didgeridoo accompanying oud player Joe Tawadros and his brother James on the Egyptian percussion, to legendary Jimmy Little pulling on the heartstrings with a few of his gentle songs.
There were dancing performances from the children of St Scholastica's college Yata Mala as well as Vicki Van Hout's ensemble.
The night was MC'd by Adam Spencer with Paul Sumner from Mossgreen Gallery in Melbourne as auctioneer.
Mark Olive prepared a very exciting and daring menu of all things Indigenous. Possum pies, crocodile legs and smoked emu were included in the bush tucker banquet. My favourite was the Wallaby Lasagne.
Leconfield Wines generously agreed to sponsor this occasion with their top quality range.
Peter Garrett MP as our guest of honour very bravely agreed to be auctioned off as a dinner guest to the highest bidder. The winner paid $5,000 for 5 of his friends to join Peter at Billy Kwong's restaurant, which was donated by Kylie Kwong. Thank you Kylie. Apparently a good night was had by all.
Jeff McMullen as guest speaker gave a very passionate and insightful talk on Aboriginal affairs which had the audience spellbound.
We were extremely lucky to find the talented Matt Plant, a new up and coming film maker who produced the video showing our first scholarship recipients. He chose the Kasey Chambers rendition of 'True Colours' to accompany his film and there was barely a dry eye in the house.
Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan wound up the night with her band in full flight.
We were also very lucky to have the talents of Anthea Leonard from Sweet Art who styled the room with gorgeous flower arrangements and vibrant table cloths. Photographer Liz Warning produced some super enlarged photographs of the children which were displayed around the room and many people commented that they felt the presence of the children through them.
We only have a small committee on the fundraising dinner team but each and every one of them contributed something valuable and fantastic. Whether it was ideas, or prizes, or their time and energy, the night would not have been the success it was without their great participation. I thank Sandrine Vinay, Jennifer Stuckey-Clarke, Michelle Belgiorno-Nettis, Kristina Karasulas, Sandy Short and Krista Horbatiuk. I also welcome Melanie Spencer and Lisa Cahill to the committee. They are already going great guns for our 2007 event.
Fiona Latham
Event Coordinator
