A big thank you to everyone who supported the sales of the Rotary cakes and puddings for Christmas, everyone who purchased them and enjoyed eating them, and to members and non-members who came to keep me company for the many days at Cooleman Court while selling the products. Lots of people came back for more!
This year was the first year of Cooleman Court sales after Christmas and before the New year. Some Cakes are still available and our Bulletin and website have details on where they can be purchased.
I felt like a goose selling cakes after Christmas, considering that I had no expectations of whether I would sell any at all. Surprisingly, only one customer asked if they were discounted! Many people are getting to know the products and even said they missed me last year, and were glad they caught me this year. We also had the new Molonglo shoppers for the 2017 year as the Coomb’s shopping centre is not yet open.
Most days flew by quickly as so many people come to have coffee with me, a chat, a look at my pictures of Singapore and Nepal, a hello and/or a wave, and more importantly, a comfort break occasionally. I thank Charlie, the young manager of Michel’s and Minas from Sakeena’s who looked after my nutritional requirements. I rescued a bank card from the floor one day and was able to facilitate its return to a very grateful owner who came back in the afternoon to thank me.
The cloth puddings had sold by Christmas, and the 11 boxed puddings I still had over were sold by New Year. Two orders were placed for and there are only some 275 cakes remaining, but that gives me stock for the Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) meeting in February, and also the District Conference in March this year. However, the use-by-date of the new order is May 2019, so plenty of time to keep them – BUT who wants to keep them! They are too nice to keep!
The total provided for our RAWCS project following the sales of the two orders will be $2,734.80. There are still 275 cakes for sale. Overall, sales were up on 2016 and this can be attributed to more sale days, an earlier start before Christmas, a second order in December to have sufficient stocks up to and post-Christmas to sell, sale days post-Christmas, staying longer than the contract hours, being inside the Centre, more customers from the Molonglo suburbs, and most importantly, the increasing popularity of the products.
The Rotary Club of Melton in Victoria coordinate the sale of the products and they donate the proceeds to The Rotary Foundation. The products are made near Melbourne with Australian ingredients. The cake tins promote the six focuses of Rotary around the side. Our RAWCS project is registered under Maternal and Child Health and also Disease Prevention, one of the six areas of focus, and we are very close to having sufficient funds now for a second Rotary Global Grant from The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. This time, the Rotary Global Grant will be for the Hospital to purchase a C-Arm X-Ray machine for use in orthopaedic surgery.
“Making a Difference” is this year’s theme for Rotary. One huge side benefit of selling the cakes over many days was the promotion of Rotary. Some parents provide coins to their children to donate in order to teach them the concept of giving. The cake tins themselves explain and create a lot of interest in the six focuses of Rotary. One lady asked how she could become a Rotary volunteer!