By Margaret Carey
We have had so much community support in building towards our annual target of $60,000 to fund the 2025 scholarships.
The end of the Rugby season, saw the cheque handover for our proportion of the gate takings throughout the Grenfell Rugby Union clubs season. This is a long term and positive partnership, which we mutually value. The Spring Ball was a terrific success to the point that talk has started about next year. We could not have done it without the commitment from Grenfell Bowling Club. The donation of the windmill from Farm ‘n’ Fable was highly sought in the night’s auction.
The matched giving finishes at the end of the month, and we well and truly reached the goal of $5000, which is matched by Country Education Foundation of Australia.
Last week we held our AGM, and we welcome Courtney Hunter as vice chairperson, to the otherwise unchanged executive. Our previous vice-chair, Peter Spedding sees this as the time for him to build that important succession.
We nominated Peter for the annual Katie Walker Outstanding Community Service Award which recognises a volunteer throughout the CEFA national network. This was announced at the annual conference earlier in the month awarded to Katrina Norwood from CEF of Shoalhaven.
Though Peter did not win, we want to recognise his unfailing commitment to the young people of our community. It was his first step in 2016 in taking up the research he had done on CEF and starting the conversation. Peter observed other successful foundations and went about making Grenfell the best possible CEF to suit our community. It was Peter’s vision and ability to build a team of equally dedicated people that saw the realisation of CEF of Grenfell, awarding the first scholarships in 2017. His commitment to CEF of Grenfell has made a lasting impression on our community, committee, and most importantly the young people of our shire. Because of Peter, we have a committee, and through his ongoing leadership we have a committee that seeks to find the best ways to support our young people and build strong connections across and through our community. Our young people are thriving through the support and know there is great back up when there are challenges. Peter has paved the way and modelled how to make it happen year in and out. Peter will still be there on the committee, continuing to guide us wisely. We want to acknowledge and congratulate Peter for all he does.
Applications for 2025 scholarships close 30 November 2024.