School fete

As I mentioned in my barely-qualifies-as-a-post yesterday, among our activities this weekend was Miss B's primary school fete. School fetes are a big deal in Australia, or at least in the ACT; at this time of year, when you drive around Canberra, you will see signs for them every weekend from the start of November until school ends for summer holidays in the third week of December. The fete is usually the school's principal fundraising event every year, and our school community puts a huge amount of effort into it. This year's fete had more than two dozen stalls and attractions, including turning the entire school hall over to secondhand stalls selling children's clothing, books, and other stuff. Pictured above is a small sample of what my stitch group had for sale at their stall; I can't take any credit for any of this as I have not produced one single saleable item this year. I did volunteer a morning to help with fete food prep, and baked a cake at home to bring for one of the cake stalls; and I spent 2 hours on fete day selling people lunch at the Mexican food stall. (Oh, and I also procured the authentic fiesta decorations for the Mexican stall during my recent visit to Dallas.) So, though I remain a terrible knitter, I try to do my bit in other ways.

Miss B came with me to explore the fete while I was working, and between bouts of helping out at the Mexican stall and the stitch stall (being run by her beloved Year 3 teacher), she practiced being independent by heading into the throng to visit the cotton candy lady, the face painting booth (where she got a bracelet painted on her wrist), and the people giving out free balloons. So a good time was had by all, and word went round the school today that this year's fete raised somewhere in the neighborhood of AU$25,000. How's that for the power of volunteerism?

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