Our 19^th Annual Catholic Schools Race Day, held on Saturday 16 March at Thabeban Park Race Course was another great success. All tickets into our Marquee area, capped at 350 were sold. This year’s theme, Celestial Celebration certainly created extra sparkle to the day with many attendees dressed accordingly to add to the day’s atmosphere. The weather conditions are always a challenge and this year being windy and warm, didn’t hamper the festivities.

The afternoon kicked off with the Fashions Parade hosted again this year by the ladies from Sanshells Boutique Bargara and Vo Vo’s Boutique Bundaberg. The ladies put on a great show and were applauded loudly by the very appreciative crowd.

Everyone in our marquee who were dressed according to our theme were automatic entrants into our annual Pam Hansen Fashion Awards and the winners were very happy to be rewarded for their special effort in adding sparkle to their attire.

The marquee’s atmosphere was also enhanced by the talented artists on the stage performing their versions of popular songs in the background throughout the day.

Food and drinks were in plentiful supply. The fantastic team of volunteers from Shalom Catering again supplied a tasty range of nibbly treats throughout the day. This team have been doing this for fifteen years now and they always deliver the highest quality food and at a very low cost. This year they were again assisted with the generosity of Dominos Pizzas with their donation of 50 pizzas to compliment the range produced by the Shalom Team. The volunteer team behind the bar and selling drink tickets again did a fantastic job ensuring attendees were served their favourite thirst quencher in a speedy manor.

Another major feature of the day and a great contributor to the money raised for the day is our raffle. Over $8,000 in raffle prizes were donated by our generous sponsors and $4,200 worth of tickets were sold on the day. This was a great result considering that despite our marquee being sold out, the crowd in the General Public arena of the Race Club, where we sell many tickets usually, was well down on numbers in comparison to recent years. An enormous amount of work by members of our committee went into getting this pool of prizes together from the many extremely generous donors.

The money raised on the day, $20,000+, added to a little left over from last year has enabled us to distribute $7,000 to each of our three Primary Schools.  St. Joseph’s is allocating their funds to the purchase of new outdoor learning tables for the Prep and Year 1 Classrooms. St Patrick’s funds are going towards new outdoor seating for the new prayer space which is being built during the next school holidays and St. Mary’s are purchasing a container to house their playground equipment.  

As a committee, it is so wonderful to see the money raised go to such valuable causes, especially in the assistance annually to the enhancement of the education of our Primary School students. Thanks also to Shalom for giving their share to the Primary Schools.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who were involved in the event, Committee, Sponsors, Volunteer Teachers, Staff and Students and Parents. This annual Catholic Schools event is an enjoyable day on our calendar, and we are already looking forward to next year’s event scheduled for Saturday 15 March 2025. It will be our 20^th annual event so special effort will be going into creating a great reunion for all past and present Committee, Volunteers, Sponsors, and attendees.

Peter O’Beirne

Catholic Schools Race Day Committee