On Monday 11 March, at the Kambah Centenary Family Festival, which went from 11am till 3pm, the Kambah community came together like many locals have never seen before.
It was a fantastic day, with so many positive responses. The organising team made up of representatives from Eternity Church, LifeCity Church, St Stephens Anglican Church, Weston Creek Uniting Church, Chain Reaction and Fusion Canberra had estimated that there would be 500 people coming.
A conservative estimate of yesterday’s numbers would be 2000, but more likely 2,500 possibly even up towards 3000 over the 4 hours of the event.
Kambah Adventure Playground was an ideal venue with the playground activities already there, the grass looking really good and freshly mown by Territory and Municipal Services (TAMS) a few days prior just for the event.
The 1000 sausages bought for the day went within the first hour. Current estimates indicate that close to 3000 sausages were served on the day with queues snaking right through the festival.
The Face Painting team lead by Tom and Rachael ran out of all supplies by 2pm and unfortunately had to close down.
The Kids Carpentry tent ably led by Geoff and Trevor, both volunteers of Fusion Canberra, ran out of wood offcuts by 1.30pm. Geoff drove down to Tuggeranong Bunnings with his trailer and asked if they had any more which they did and the sound of hammers was heard once again in the midst of the fun sounds of the festival a half hour later.
Zed Seselja, Member for Brindabella, the local ACT Government electorate, came to be part of the 100th Birthday Canberra cake cutting ceremony. Mr John Brummell of Duffy was our oldest Canberra resident at 83 years old. John also interestingly was volunteering all day on the BBQ team. Now that’s something to aspire to in our senior years!
In the team debrief when the festival had finished there were at least 52 volunteers present. Some of the works they used to describe their experience of the day were “unreal”, “flabbergasted at the numbers of people who came”, “hectic!”, “the kids had so much fun. It was great!”, “Organised Chaos”, “Gobsmacked by 4 churches coming together and it obviously impressed the community as well”.
In the midst of some saying it won’t work on Canberra Day as everyone will be at the central celebrations or down the coast for the long weekend the organising team continued on in faith that this was right to do to serve the families of Kambah who wouldn’t want to go into the central celebrations and for whom they may not have the means to just head off to the coast.
And the hunch paid off. The response was overwhelming and there is already suggestions of when something similar could be done again.
In fact, someone from the community on the day seriously asked one of the volunteers, “Will you be doing this every Monday?”.
If only we could, and in fact the underlying yearning for people coming together and connecting deeply is what was behind this question and the whole reason for the day. Maybe you might like to help more days like yesterday happen in the future. Let us know.
As so many of the team saw yesterday – it’s amazing what we can do when we do it together.
Well done to the organising committee made up of reps from:
- LifeCity Church
- Eternity Church
- St Stephens Anglican Church
- Weston Creek Uniting Church
- Chain Reaction Ministries
- Fusion Canberra
Thankyou to all our supporting businesses / organisations:
- Bunnings Tuggeranong
- Carousel Arts
- Namadgi School
- St Thomas the Apostle Catholic Primary School
- Wombat Wardrobe
- Hand to Hand
- Zambreros Erindale
- Big Fun
- Meatways Butcher Kambah Village
Feedback is encouraged for the event. Use the link below for the online survey.
