Vol. 17 No. 5
FREE PUBLICATION
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Indian flavour Wimmera Health Care Group Foundation’s Friends of the Foundation will host an Indian-inspired movie night on August 14. The HundredFoot Journey is the feature movie, with the public invited to attend the fundraiser dressed in a ‘touch of India’. Pictured bottom left is Allison Roberts, then clockwise, Julie Bergen, Lyn McCrae and Denise Leembruggen preparing their costumes for the event at Horsham Centre Cinema. For full story, page 7. Picture: BARRY KING
Agency to the rescue C
ommunity service agency Wimmera Uniting Care is positioning itself to take over Horsham’s annual Labour Day weekend fishing contest. The agency, the fourth-largest community organisation of its type in Victoria, has recognised the iconic charity fundraiser as a high-value community event and discussed options with contest organisers. Wimmera Uniting Care chief executive officer Barrie Elvish, deputy chief executive Leeanne Thomson and marketing and media team leader Adele Rohde met with commit-
Fishing contest thrown lifeline tee representatives on Monday. Mr Elvish said the community event was a huge asset to the region and every effort should be made to ensure its sustainability. “Not only is this a wonderful family event for locals and people who travel from across the country but it’s a major fundraiser for some of the region’s not-for-profit community groups,” he said. “It would be a real shame to lose that.”
A growing workload for a shrinking volunteer organising committee has placed the annual Horsham Fishing Contest, which has generated millions of dollars for community groups and the Horsham economy since 1972, in jeopardy. Mr Elvish said Wimmera Uniting Care had asked for copies of the committee’s financial reports to asses the best way of going forward. “It might be that our agency, with help from other service
groups such as Horsham Apex Club, takes over the running of the competition with the help of the current committee,” he said. “It’s certainly not the kind of event we could just pick up and run so we would be relying on the expertise and experience of those who have looked after and grown this competition over many years. “There might also be opportunities for us to simply help with the administration of the
event, which could act as a fundraiser for some community projects of our own that we currently don’t have funding for.”
Community offers
Horsham Rural City Council, Horsham Apex Club and other volunteers have also reached out to the fishing competition committee with offers to help with future events. Mr Elvish said comments in the public arena and on social media showed there was still
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significant community support for the event. “We see this as an extension of our broader agency changes to become immersed in our community and to have our finger on the pulse about the issues presenting in those communities,” he said. “One of our new initiatives is to support and encourage staff to become involved at a governance level in community groups throughout the region so this fits right in with that.” The fishing contest, offering more than $60,000 in prizes, attracts thousands of people to the banks of the Wimmera River in Horsham event year.