QUOTA News

Quota Conference in Armidale:

The 58th Annual Conference of Quota International District 24 was held  at Armidale  on the last weekend in May. Members from 15 District clubs attended, with Quotarians travelling from Tweed/Coolangatta, Walcha, Coff Harbour and many places in between.

Fifteen members from Alstonville- Wollongbar Quota drove to Armidale, and participated in an enthusiastic Conference, lots of friendship and fellowship, and also enjoyed a weekend of 'winter'.  It was very moving to see our own Leon (Lon) Campbell recognised for her 50 years involvement in Quota, especially her dedication in making the Australian movement of Quota International truly recognised, whilst working as a member of the International Board. Leonie joined the Quota Club of Gunnedah as a charter member in 1958, and is currently an inspiring member of Alstonville-Wollongbar Quota Club. Congratulations Lon!

 

 

Pink Pyjama Party - Saturday 16 May 2008 - Our version of The Cancer Council's Biggest Morning Tea

This year in lieu of ‘The Biggest Morning Tea’ our members decided to host a pink pyjama party to raise funds for cancer.  The function was held at the home of one of our members and was a night of great fun and laughter.

Members arrived wearing pink pyjamas, pink wigs and fluffy slippers.  We started the night sipping pink champagne and having pink highlights sprayed in our hair.  The winner of best pyjamas’ went to our beautiful Leonie Campbell (94) who outshone us all in her pink satin outfit. 

We dined on pink food, played games, danced to Abba and had a lot of laughs. There was a raffle for a mystery prize and jewellery cleaning for a gold coin donation.  The night was a great success and we raised $237 for The Cancer Council.

Go to the photo section of the website to see photos of the night.


Quota Club of Alstonville Wollongbar Friendship Lunch was held on Sunday 9 March 2008.  Guest speaker was Loma Willis, who, with her daughter Kathy, started the Biggest Shave, raising millions of dollars for the Leukemia Foundation.  Loma gave an inspirational talk on how she became involved in fundraising after losing her husband to leukemia. 

A highlight of the day was the announcement of Annette Ferguson Memorial Award.  Annette Ferguson was a very special member of our Club.  As a charter member of the club she believed very strongly in working for the Community and was the driving force behind many of our local and district projects.  In memory of Annette, the club initiated an award to recognise all the womens' groups in our community that do so many varied good works.  The winner of the award receives a $500.00 donation to go to the charity nominated by the recipient. The award is presented each year at our Friendship Dinner/Lunch.  This year there were four outstanding candidates for the award:

Heidi Tornow, a trained counsellor who works in a voluntary capacity, for up to 18 hours each week at Heatfelt House, an organisation that aims to provide support to adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their family and friends.

Tracey Everingham.  A number of organisations are indebted to Tracey, for her fundraising efforts on their behalf.  Tracey has worked for Variety, the Children's Charity, for eleven years, raising tens of thousands of dollars.

Tamara Smith is committed to closing the educational gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and non-indigenous students, and works tirelessly towards this end, always in her own time,  outside her 'working life' school commitments.

Barbara Swain came to volunteer work through her own sad family experience, and is involved in many areas of support for Mental Health.  This involvement is on two levels - at a community level, working for greater recognition and acceptance of mental illness as an illness; and at an individual level, supporting individual people with special needs.

This year's winner of the Annette Ferguson Memorial Award for outstanding community work was presented to Barbara Swain.

Congratulations to all the nominees.