This year’s event saw around 700 people turn out on Waterloo Green to celebrate our local public housing community and kick-start the Chinese New Year festivities – Year of the Monkey. Everybody absolutely loved Mason, our Chinese God of Prosperity, shaking hands and giving out his fortune cookies, as well as the Lok Wan Cantonese Opera and Dancing Group performances, Mr Wu’s Tai Chi sword and fan dance demo, and Mabel Chang and her wonderful team’s yummy special fried rice! We would like to thank each of them for volunteering their time on the day.
We had plenty on offer, with local singers, inflatable water slides and jumping castles, a mobile play bus, face painting and balloon animals. Our great catering, from ice-cream to hot dogs, pastries, brownies and fruit, meant no-one left hungry! As well, over 12 agencies hosting information stalls, including UrbanGrowth NSW, Sydney Metro, and FACS Housing Services, and Land and Housing Corporation, were kept very busy with lots of questions from the local residents following the recent redevelopment announcement.
For the past five years the organisation of this event has been overseen by the Redfern and Waterloo Neighbourhood Advisory Board Events Group, which is made up of local agencies and tenant representatives, chaired by South Sydney Community Aid’s Executive Officer, Bill Yan. On behalf of the Group I would like to thank all the staff and volunteers on the day who worked hard from beginning to end: the Counterpoint and South Sydney Community Aid bump-in-and-out team, Jenny Leong, MP for Newtown, for opening the event, and Terry Olsen for being such a wonderful MC.
We would also like to thank our supporters who make this great day possible through their contributions: NSW Family and Community Services, Clubs NSW, City of Sydney, Eat Drink Give, Redfern and Waterloo CDAT, Optus Rock Corps, Connect Redfern, Barnardos, UrbanGrowth NSW and Sydney Story Factory.
We are already excited for 2017 – our 10th year is set to be bigger and better than ever!
