Another successful reunion has been held and enjoyed immensely by those who attended.
Illness plagued numbers this year with a few regular attendees being unable to asttend for various reasons, coming out of hospital, under doctor’s orders and the likes of such unfortunate unavoidable events in ones life.
The 49 members and partners that did attend enjoyed a great weekend of camaraderie and conviviality despite the nuisance rain that fell on the Saturday afternoon and night. I am not too sure how much rain fell in Coffs Harbour on the Saturday night but we awoke to a magnificent sunny morning on Sunday.
Ken and Margaret Sceney, John and Jenny Pidgeon and others in the organisational team, are to be congratulated on their “behind the scenes” activities and enthusiasm that went to make the weekend the success that it was.
The by now standard format of Meet and Greet on Friday night, Dinner on Saturday night and our bi-annual General Meeting on the Sunday, went ahead seemlessly and the Park Beach Bowls Club once again excelled itself in hosting the weekend on their premises and supplying a delicious hot and beautifully presented 3 course meal on Saturday and an overabundance of finger food (hot and cold) on the Friday night. Anyone who left the reunion hungry only had themselves to blame.
A special mention I feel must be made of Kay and Stephen Meikle who went out of their way to ensure that their father/father in law, Bob Lawrence, had an enjoyable and memorable weekend with his mates despite the fact that he is suffering from an onset of dementia. Their selfless act and the obvious care they displayed was noted and appreciated by all members who attended.
Whilst offering special mentions I would be remiss to not congratulate and thank those who donated items for the raffles on Saturday night. The quality of the items was superb and greatly appreciated by all whether winners or not. Thank you, all the girls (and boys) who traded their particular crafts and offered such a wide range of quality goods for prizes. See list below:
Joy Purdie
87TPT towels and t towels, xmas table runner, quilted knee rug, embroidered tote bag
Marie Thomson
door prize of Aussie Outback applique wall hanging –
87TPT t towels, cut-work t towels, embroidered t towels
Clare Storer (Marie’s next door neighbour)
and applique wall hanging and a quilted frog wall hanging
Jenny Hurnall
a gents biro in the shape of a rifle and a ladies biro with magnetic clip necklace
Jo Quinn
Vietnam Book and DVD compendium
Shirley Hoare
Quilted Bedspread and quilted table runner
Pat Jerome
Ladies watch and jewelery set and mans watch
Jeanette Henderson
crocheted fan stitch throw rug
Peter Brooke
2 t shirts with Seymour Vietnam Veterans Walk logo
Plus VV colours necklaces
Coffs Harbour Bowling Club
bottle of whisky and a bottle each of red and white wine
John and Jenny Pidgeon
a bottle each of Tasmanian cherry liqueur and cherry port
Pommie Adcock
an assortment of stickers which we sold on Sunday morning

I cannot really honestly elaborate on the success of the reunion any more than by saying that Patsy and I both enjoyed the weekend immensely and I am sure that all others attended did so as well. I missed out on securing our usual cabin type of accommodation in the Caravan Park this year (and I did book early….. the Tuesday prior to the reunion!!) but we did manage to secure immaculately clean accommodation at the Ocean Spray apartments just across the road from the Club.
Some moved in to Coffs and stayed for a couple of weeks or more, some for just the weekend and others for just the Saturday night. Us, we moved in on Friday and left Monday morning.

The meeting on Sunday is covered in the minutes that you should receive soon by Email or snail mail, and our new Office Bearers were duly elected: Des Ralph is the new President whilst the Secretary’s and Treasurer’s positions remain unchanged with Jenny Pidgeon and Ken Sceney refilling these positions. Welfare Officer is once again Bloo Dennis. Congratulations to all elected members and also a big thankyou to retiring President Jim Thompson for his dedicated 13 years in the position. Following the closure of the meeting the majority of members who were not heading straight off home, moved up to the local “Hoey Moey” pub about 4 doors up the road for yet another meal.

Below you should find most of the photographs I took over the weekend except there is not one of Blue Hickey, and I apologise for this in that the only one I have was not at all flattering to the lady he was sitting next to so I have refrained from putting my welfare in jeopardy by upsetting said lady!!