Madeira fete a huge success
Early on Saturday morning, Chris and Annemarie Mills got ready so they could arrive at the Madeira Home’s entrance gates as soon as they opened for the start of the fete. They were particularly keen to get to the book stall. People in the community donated an amazing selection of books.
Annemarie jumped for Joy when she found books two and three in the latest series by Sarah J Maas, and to top it all, they were brand new reads — what a find!
Some 40 runners took part in the early morning fun run, a lovely morning to be out and about. Fetes are always a lovely time to meet up with friends and acquaintances whom one has not seen for a while, and it was lovely to see people outside in the sunshine, under the shady trees, laughing, chatting and catching up in groups.
The meat stall, as usual, sold very well, thanks to the hard work of Queenstown Rotary Club and Hein Maritz and his fellow Rotarians.
The knitting group from Madeira Home put on a wonderful display of all their knitted and crocheted items, which drew the attention of many elderly people. Well done to the ladies in that group for all their hard work, love and time that went into making the various items.
Lovely bunches of mixed cut flowers and roses from Sam Breetzke were part of the plant sale. Jeanne Bowes and Rose McDougall were “manning” the plant stall. Second-hand clothing items were also available, and many people enjoyed searching through for items to fit, all thanks to those who donated to this worthy stall.
The ever-popular pancake stall’s queue seemed to go on forever. Well done to the pancake cooks. It was very hot indoors.
Perhaps in future a few fans could be lent to this very popular stall to enable the cooks to cope in the heat.
The women and reverend Lihai Berkovich did a sterling job in the tea room. It was lovely to just get off one’s feet, take time to sit a while and catch up with other friends. The constant chatter, laughter or calling out to someone was what caused the buzz. Super eats with tea or coffee were on offer and thoroughly appreciated.
To coin an “old” phrase, the entertainment at the fete was “just fabulous”. The Balmoral New Girls Marimba Band, wearing their lovely matching tops and dancing along to the music they made was lovely to watch.
Walking around from stall to stall and chatting to people on the way felt like pre-Covid times, except there seemed to be more of a sense of excitement and joy at seeing people again, which we have not seen for a while. We are all looking forward to more lovely fetes in the future.