Annual Bunnings Sausage Sizzle
Neal Crocker
This year we held our Annual sausage sizzle fundraiser at our beloved Bunning Balcatta store. I was not sure if this year would go ahead with the recent COVID scares, but we were very lucky and still able to hold our fundraiser.
This year, planning was left a bit later than usual but we managed to get more than enough volunteers. But unfortunately, all the planning in the world could not have foreseen that the WA State Election would also be held on that day and that we would be competing with a number of other “free” sausage sizzles at every polling booth. Nor did I predict the difficulty it would be to find “bread rolls” for that Saturday. I had to arrange with four different Woolworths stores to get enough rolls for the day, as unfortunately a lot of their orders were also for the Election.
Since the arrival of COVID, we had to follow a number of new procedures to remain COVD safe and had limited number of people that can work within the Gazebo. I also needed to attend a small training session a couple of weeks before to ensure that we were aware of the new guidelines, role descriptions and responsibilities and even workflow diagrams!
While talking with Bunnings I raised the question about brining our cars again on the day given the new requirements, and luckily, they still agreed to have our cars on display. In fact, they saw an opportunity to actually move the Gazebo to the parking area that we normally have set aside instead of the front of their store (which blocked a major traffic flow area), so it was a win-win for all of us. They kindly cordoned off the “whole parking area” to the right of the entrance. At the end of the day, we gave them some feedback on the new setup, and since then they have permanently moved it to this new location!
Please click on main image to see larger version, click arrow icons on main image or click on small images to navigate between them.
The day was very busy, especially due to the restriction in staffing numbers, and for some reason we got a lot of people asking for some interesting orders – a double hotdog, with onions, with tomato, BBQ and Mustard sauce all together. In fact, this year even though Paul Ferguson brought about 30kg of onions we went through them all and Dean had to quickly drive to more than one shop to buy some more. It was one of the most popular options for some reason as well as Mustard which this year was more popular than ever before.
We had great feedback on our cars and a number of people were really interested in seeing them up close. We also met a new prospective member Robin Adair, who had contacted me earlier that month wanting to become a member. Unfortunately, due to family issues he had to fly over to Adelaide soon afterwards. However, we hope to see him with his TWO “S” Series at our AGM in August.
Talking about new cars, John and Ruth Huntly drove up in their recently restored two-door Plymouth “R” Series Valiant. A lot of us were surprised to see it and some of us managed to get up close and inspect his handywork. This was restored in record time, just over a year from shell to being licensed and on the road.
Towards the end of the day the heat turned up a bit and Ken, who just finished BBQ duty, was feeling a bit warm so he decided to try out his personal air-conditioning 😊 I think we need to invest in a few of these instead of car air-conditioning units, maybe something to consider for our next January event!
It was a fantastic outcome for the club raising a record profit for the day! We sold all our sausages and buns and only had a small number of cans left over. I believe it was a record day for us with profits, even with the additional expenses that we had in order to buy some additional onions and even more incredible given that it was on a State Election day!
A big thank you to everyone that came and helped out in the leadup and on the day. Without your support this would not have been a success.