November 14, 2014
An outdoor movie night held in Wondai’s Coronation Park on Thursday proved to be quite a success.
The event was organised by the by the Charlotte The Emu Memorial Committee, partly as a fundraiser for their goal of raising $10,000 to erect a permanent memorial to Wondai’s much-loved town emu, and partly to update the community on the group’s progress.
A crowd of about 200 converged on the park to enjoy a gold coin donation screening of the Australian movie “Red Dog”, which tells the true story of how West Australian mining town came to erect a similar memorial sculpture to a much-loved dog.
The movie screening was preceded by jazz provided by Goomeri musician Tom McKenzie, along with a slideshow of photos taken of Charlotte in and around Wondai prepared by CROW-FM announcer Shaz Burkitt.
Committee members served hot chips, soft drinks and ice-creams while the crowd waited for the sun to set.
Gold coin donations were collected from the audience as the screening began.
The night was compered by CROW-FM station manager Chris “Corky” Corcoran, who was accompanied by the station’s mascot dog, Lily Pug.
Former South Burnett PCYC manager Michael Eadie, who travelled up from Brisbane with a $6000 mobile outdoor movie kit to conduct the screening, said he was surprised by the large turnout.
“This is probably the biggest audience we’ve ever had at any outdoor movie night we’ve run,” he said.
Committee members were also floored by the demand for hot chips, which were cooked at the nearby Wondai Hotel and Cellar and ferried to the park’s servery area by hotel staff.
“We served about 36kg of chips tonight,” Michael Beohm said.
“We thought demand would be about a third of that, so we certainly got that wrong!”
The evening raised $725.50 towards the memorial project.
The cost of the movie hire fee was donated by sponsors IGA Wondai, the Wondai Hotel and Cellar, Wondai Mechanical, Hobbs and Associates and Datawave.
Committee member Elaine Madill, from the Wondai Art Gallery, said she thought the success of the event also proved the concept of outdoor movie nights in Coronation Park was viable.
“This could be the start of regular summer movie nights in the park,” she said.
“They could be used to raise funds for all sorts of worthwhile community projects, and give families an inexpensive, fun night of family entertainment into the bargain.”
The committee’s next fundraiser will be a radiothon on CROW-FM in December.
Related articles:
- Outdoor Movie Night Will Help Emu Appeal
- Emu Campaign Kicks Off In Wondai
- Full Steam Ahead For Emu Fundraiser
- Emu Committee Ready To Start Fund-Raising
- Radiothon To Fund Emu Memorial
- Emu Memorial Committee Presses Ahead
- Steel Statue Planned To Immortalise Emu
- Art Gallery Plans Emu Tribute
- Wondai’s Beloved Emu Dies
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