Fireworks fundraiser dazzles big crowd

 

BY JULIA WADE

Armed with picnics, blankets and deckchairs, an audience in the thousands were captivated recently by a spectacle of luminous firework-art which lit up the local sky. Wowing an ever-growing number of visitors, this year estimated between 4500-5000, Tomarata School’s annual Guy Fawkes Night complete with musical entertainment, bouncy castles and carnival food, is becoming a traditional must-see event for many, with the evening signalling the start to the coming festive season.

Held at Tomarata Domain on November 16 and organised by the school’s dedicated PTA, a team of eight ‘helping-hands mums’ led by Anne Richards and Dianne Denton, 2019’s pyrotechnic fundraising display was a huge success PTA spokesperson Karen Sims says. “The Impact Pyro team fireworks are always amazing, but this year was the best I have ever seen!” she says. “The total profit is not known yet, but it will be well over twenty thousand dollars.

All the money raised goes back to the school kids and this year will be going towards an outdoor play zone.”For many years crowds have been delighted by Impact Pyro’s dazzling synchronised fireworks display, and the pyrotechnic company are also the biggest sponsors of the event. For their third year, popular local musical duo Happy Fish entertained, keeping people toe-tapping and dancing until sundown when the main attraction could begin.

Besides the dedication of ‘the ladies on the helping-hands team and their families’, over 60 volunteers, including teachers, are involved with the running of the event on the night Sims says. “We were very lucky to have Lion members helping with parking again this year, they do an amazing job especially as it was our busiest yet, and the fabulous Brian Mason kindly opened up another of his paddocks so we had three for parking in total,” she says.

“The Guy Fawkes gala does take months of organising, and we are so happy with the outcome.”

PHOTO BRIAN CAME