By Dylan J Stone
Menindee residents ushered in the festive season on Saturday with the Menindee Charities Inc Christmas Fair held for the first time since 2019, and jointly supported by the Central Darling Shire Council and Broken Hill Small Business Association.
Scores of residents greeted Santa as he arrived at the Menindee Civic Hall at 11am, where he handed out lolly bags to the children. Once inside the hall, Santa sat for photos and viewed the market stalls. Stallholders had an arrangement of new toys, clothing, gifts, plants, and refreshments for sale.
Margot Muscat, from Menindee Charities, said, “it was a really good day overall for the Fair, and the Menindee Charities Op Shop raised over $500 in the annual Christmas raffle, which is our new record, and for the first time, we were able to provide all of the children who were under six years old with a free gift, from donations received at the Charities Op Shop this year.”
Barb Stephens, from Menindee Charities, echoed Mrs Muscat’s comments. “We’ve had a constant flow of people through the doors today and it’s been great to see the community once again supporting the Fair.”
The CWA Menindee Branch ably provided the traditional Fair sausage sizzle, with member Noeline Edwards and husband, Peter, manning the barby. Mr Edwards said, “I’ve cooked up a sweat out here on the barbeque, it’s a hot one for sure, but it was all worth it to ensure everyone enjoyed the barbeque lunch.
As it happens, Mr Edwards’s involvement with the Fair stretches back much further than just cooking the barbeque. Several years ago, while a member of the Men-in-dee Shed, he built Santa’s sleigh for the jolly bloke to arrive in style, as opposed to hitching a ride on the fire truck as in previous years.
“To build the sleigh, a projector was used to enlarge the design onto the board and then the initial cropping of the board took a few hours, and then it certainly took a little while longer to paint the sleigh,’ Mr Edwards laughed.
After the raffle was drawn, Mrs Muscat thanked the volunteers and supporters for a great day, and said, “now we have been able to hold the Fair again, we will certainly be planning to make next year’s event even bigger.”
The residents of Menindee certainly picked a beautiful day to cheer in the festive season, and Mrs Edwards thanked the community, “for coming and supporting the Fair and we hope everyone enjoyed themselves”.
