By Callum Ludwig
Thousands enjoyed the festivities at the free Wandin North Family Fun Day on Thursday 26 January, organised by the Rotary Club of Wandin.
With the Wandin Fire Brigade’s Open Day running alongside, there was plenty for everyone at the Wandin North Oval to do.
Rotary President Paul Martin said they are very pleased with how the event came together.
“With the influx of particularly young families to Wandin, the suggestion was made that we should be looking to do something for younger families and given the hard economic times that people are experiencing, we wanted to make everything free,” he said.
“We joined with the Wandin Football Club, Cricket Club and the CFA and went to the Wandin-Seville Bendigo Community Bank for sponsorship and the generous donation from Tony at Mt Evelyn IGA, we were able to do that which was amazing.”
From the 25th Australia Day breakfast in the morning to all of the sausages, soft drinks and activities, everything was free for attendees until the supply ran out.
The Rotary Club of Wandin’s Community Service Committee chairman Gavan McIntyre said they had no idea how well it would go.
“We had a meeting on Monday night before and there was so much enthusiasm with all the other groups that before we finish the meeting, we were already talking about next year’s event. I think it will definitely become a regular fixture and it will probably grow next year now that we’ve proved that we can do it,” he said.
“The great thing about having the football and cricket club involved is that they are all younger too, we’ve got a couple of younger members that have joined us but we need those young, vibrant members with different ideas and perhaps more energy to push things along.”
On the oval, live music, tug of war, sack racing, billy carts, cricket and football gave kids plenty of fun to be found, as well as ice cream and coffee to enjoy. At the same time, Wandin Fire Brigade did a live demonstration of a car rescue, offered a chance to use a firehose and opened their doors to show everyone around inside the brigade.
Attendee Lisa said it was lovely to have a nice family activity close to home to enjoy.
“The kids have been able to run off and enjoy themselves, the billy carts and the tug-of-war have been really popular,” she said.
“We would definitely come back next year, the Rotary has done a great job and it’s nice to have someone like Rotary look into family events for kids to enjoy with their friends from school and other people in the Valley.”
