Gunnedah’s scorching temperatures last week failed to burn-out the enthusiasm of the Summerfest Gunnedah team.
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The group of 50 volunteers from Sydney and Canberra battled temperatures of up to 43 degrees alongside locals during the week-long holiday program at the Gunnedah High School.
Numbers climbed every day, with up to 80 children and teens attending the morning programs, and about 100 adults hitting the Summerfest Cafe, ladies night and blokes barbecue.
Co-directors Ben Davis and Anna Moore said it was great to be back in sunny Gunny and they felt “encouraged” after their time in the community.
“We were really encouraged by Gunnedah’s enthusiasm for us to be there,” Mrs Moore said.
“While they joked about it being hot, everyone was there with smiles in their faces and keen to ask us why we bothered to come all that way.”
Summerfest has a long history in Gunnedah and was run by Scripture Union up until a few years ago when local churches started running a “mini” Summerfest instead. In 2018, the team from Canberra and Sydney kicked it up a gear got the program back off the ground.
“In the second year we’ve certainly seen a wider group of people from Gunnedah engaging with our programs. The word’s gone out that we’re here and we're keen,” Mrs Moore said.
“We love sharing the gospel of Jesus with everyone and we try to live that out and match out words with our actions so it’s been encouraging to see people respond well to that.
”It was particularly encouraging because we weren't sure if people would venture out of air conditioning to come to the school.. [but] the kids were keen to come back each day. Their enthusiasm when they came in the morning showed us that they were happy and keen to hear what we had to say.”
The teens had a great week exploring the Bible, playing games, and on one occaion, churning up KFC chicken in a blender, which is reported to have blown up.
Mrs Moore said the Summerfest Cafe was also a hit, with child minding available for parents, and people bringing along their friends.
“The parents that I did get to speak to said they really enjoyed the conversations, having interesting topics to talk about, great food, easily accessible coffee, and having the creche meant they could concentrate on building relationships, building friendships,” she said.
The kids were keen to come back each day. Their enthusiasm when they came in the morning showed us that they were happy and keen to hear what we had to say.
- Anna Moore, Summerfest Gunnedah
The ladies night was another highlight of the week, with a high tea and wedding dress parade, with team members donning 28 dresses from different eras.
“We had some really positive feedback from ladies who not only enjoyed seeing their own dresses being paraded but also how wedding culture and customs have changed over time,” Mrs Moore said.
“Steph’s talk about things that stay the same and change over time was quite relevant as they considered their marriages and their weddings and seeing the variety of dresses.”
The men fired up the barbecues out at the Chaffeys and formed teams to compete in a taste-off, with unlabelled meats including crocodile. Team Roadkill beat out the competition to win the prize.
Other popular activities were the impromptu service at Alkira and a family bush dance.
“We took some team members to Alkira on Wednesday… [and] the feedback from the residents was just overwhelming. They were really happy to have us there,” Mrs Moore said.
“Each year we like to add events or add activities that help us to reach people we haven’t met before or haven’t been able to reach before so that’s a positive one we’d like to continue in the future.”
The family bush dance was a throwback to Summerfest yesteryears and went down a treat.
“The bush dance was great,” Mrs Moore said.
“We weren't sure how country people would feel about city people rocking up and running a bush dance but everyone had a good time. The enthusiasm was amazing and people were still talking about it on Friday.”
Mrs Moore said the Summerfest team was thankful to the high school for allowing them to use the classrooms and grounds again.
“They’ve been very good to us,” she said.
Summerfest Gunnedah will return in January 2020.
