Emma G has sent in a few paragraphs about her attendance at her first Aussie Hero Weekend. As a bit of background, Emma is ex-army and when she was serving she came across Aussie Hero Quilts when she was deployed. She received her own quilt and then made a point of thinking about others and making sure that they made it on to our request list as well. Now that she has left the Army she is balancing being a Mum to little Edith whilst sewing for us.
Now over to Emma...
Here is a few paragraphs on my thank you weekend experience.
This is my first year as a volunteer for Aussie Hero Quilts, and my first year attending the Annual thank you weekend. I did not know what to expect, but overall I had a wonderful weekend. Unfortunately I missed the afternoon tea with the Governor General, which I am a little sad about, it would have been great to attend that event.
Friday night was very beneficial in meeting lots of other volunteers, I was going to be a little lost if Bev (I think her name was Bev) hadn’t rescued me on our way to the ADFA Cadets Mess. Melissa did a wonderful job with the volunteer goodie bags, there were so many nice gifts in there. I hope some of you got the little tags for laundry bags that I donated to the goodie bags, I recommend www.callie.com to purchase some. My 16-month-old daughter and I were able to attend this event, and everyone was so great with little Edith, not minding that she was running around and being excited. The lucky door prizes were wonderful, I especially love the pin cushions and seam rippers, I ended up with a book and some Aussie Christmas decorations (LOVE THEM). Edith and I had to leave early and missed the guest speaker.
The next morning, we made it to the breakfast, unfortunately the venue let down Jan-Maree and did not have a dedicated table set up for the newbies breakfast. In any case, I met a few of the new ladies and some of the more experienced volunteers, we had a lovely breakfast. Edith and I did not make it onto the bus trip, as she would have been awfully tired.
That evening I made it back to the Canberra Rex Hotel in time for the dinner, I left Edith at home, but she was the talk of the night. I purchased my raffle tickets at the door (which was very smooth) and made my way inside (but got a happy snap with JM at the entrance). To say the venue did a good job is an understatement and the volunteers that set up the quilt display should be applauded for their efforts, the room looked amazing. I met two lovely volunteers at my table Catherine D and I forget the other ladies name (I’m sorry), we also had a mixture of Army and Navy staff at our table. The conversations and wine flowed throughout the night and the table next to us (Table 17) looked like they had an especially fun night. I tried to spend my time catching up with my old Army commanders. I really enjoyed the fact that we were able to walk around and chat to people at other tables; it did not feel stuffy or rigid in the running of the evening.
The silent auction was great to say the least, the quality of work produced in the bears, quilts and laundry bags was brilliant. The raffle prize draw was a little clunky to start with but was a success in the end. I am sorry to Sue G, I really did want the gnome Army LB, which in the end I won, and made my night all the better.
The next morning, Edith and I were a little late to the breakfast at Poppy’s but it didn’t matter, everyone was still there enjoying their last moments together. Even though I did not stay at the Rex hotel, I feel like I got to know a small number of ladies and made some great connections. I had booked to walk through the Australian War Memorial (AWM) as it had been a number of years since I’ve been in Canberra to visit.
I would one hundred percent recommend anyone out there to attend the next years thank you weekend!! It was a whirlwind experience, but thoroughly enjoyed by ALL.
Kind Regards
Thanks very much Emma!
Till next time, keep spreading the word and happy stitching!
Jan-Maree xx
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