The main hall at St Lucy's in Wahroonga was full of colour and vitality on Friday evening when Jo Karaolis hosted a sit down fund raising dinner for about 140 guests to support the Kopanang Cooperative. President Neil McWhannell compered the evening and Sister Sheila updated the gathering attended. Students from Knox and Abbotsleigh joined in to assist with the organisation.
On the night we raised a total of $15,637. With $5000  Rotary will donate to the Kopanang training project, this brings us up to our total commitment of $42,000 over 3 years to provide the Women's leadership and members with the training they judged necessary to equip them to take over self-managing the Project after Sister Sheila retires to Australia at the end of this year.
 
 
The lovely hall at St Lucy's was full of colour and vitality on Friday evening when Jo Karaolis hosted a sit down fund raising dinner for about 140 guests to support the Kopanang Cooperative. The hall was full to capacity as the guests firstly mingled for a pre-dinner drink and nibbles, and then adjourned to their tables for the evenings activities.
 
The event was MC'd by President Neil.  The guests were addressed by Jo and by Sister Sheila, and shown a short, but moving, film about Kopanang (which Jo says means "gathered together" in Zulu.)
 
Then a  dinner comprising home made casseroled chicken and rice and lovely fresh salad was served by the twenty students from Ravenswood and Knox who had volunteered to assist with the evening.  They had helped with the setting up of the room from 5.00 p.m. on and proved to be very good at having a riotous time filling what must have been 200 or more helium balloons.  The young ones also had two tables of their own, and joined the guests for the meal. So about 160 people sat down to eat.
 
Sister Sheila had a quantity of goods made by the women of Kopanang for sale in a side room, and did a flourishing trade.
 
The evening proceeded with an African quiz, a shanty building competition, raffles, and a throw the coin competition, while a silent auction completed the fund raising activities.
 
A highlight of the evening for many was the chocolate coated ice cream that arrived for dessert. Delicious!
 
The evening finished at about 10.30 p.m. with the indefatigable and unflappable Jo, and an elated Sister Sheila both smiling broadly."