Community
17 April, 2023
"Gazza´s Goss: People power prevails in Bollywood"
THE ‘Goss recently promoted the Mossman Support Services inaugural multi-cultural festival which was about to be held in Mossman’s quaintly built Shire Hall.
Subsequently, my wife and I were delighted to be invited along for what was to be a truly colourful evening, full of music, spice and good company.
As well as a fundraiser, the night was planned to be the first of many events designed to celebrate the diversity of culture now experienced in the Douglas Shire.
With the event fully sold out a week before the big night, this first time occasion was bound to be a great success and promised to achieve its goal of raising funds to purchase two beach and water access wheelchairs.
Ultimately all of this was achieved, despite a night long power outage as we’ll discuss shortly.
On arrival, three key things stood out to me.
Firstly, one was immediately taken in by the aroma of amazing food wafting from the kitchen, where chef and local hero Syd Murthy was conjuring up a concoction to tease the tastebuds.
Secondly, I was impressed with the stunning Indian attire worn by the early arrivers.
Thirdly, I couldn’t help admire the amount of effort and creativity that had gone into decorating the classic Queensland style shire hall.
For a little background history, last year Mossman’s Lifestyle Support Service, part of Mossman Support Services, was approached by a physically handicapped person, down south, wanting to come up for a holiday and go swimming in the sea at Port Douglas.
Lifestyle support staff and Mossman Support Services manager Heather Taylor met and discussed their capacity to achieve this, based on the facilities available in the area.
They felt that although Port Douglas does have a fantastic all abilities wheel chair available already, in this instance they needed a different type of chair that would also allow access into the water as well as the beach itself.
The next day they all met again and each voiced how bad it felt to tell someone they couldn’t assist them in swimming from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
The team each individually researched alternatives and came up with a wheelchair that actually goes into the water, staying steady on the ocean floor and supporting participants to confidently swim out of and back into the chair independently.
They then discussed the options at a staff meeting and agreed this would be their next major fundraiser to purchase two chairs.
By chance, community development officer Erica Mast and volunteer chef Syd Murthy were developing the Bollywood nights idea and it seemed like the perfect fundraising match.
Back to the night itself and the event was not only a huge success in raising $4500, but also in showcasing the services provided by the dedicated staff and volunteers at Mossman Support Services.
They have been overwhelmed with the community support at the event, mainly from money donations and the ticket purchases.
Local businesses also donated items for prizes, together with an anonymous donation of $2000 and the addition of $1000 from their trivia night last year.
All up, thus far, an amazing $7500 has been raised, just $2500 short of the total amount required to purchase these amazing wheel chairs.
One further comment to add, as previously mentioned, was the fact that the power went completely out early in the evening.
Relentlessly, however, everyone carried on with the fundraising and many stayed back to help clear up in the dark.
It’s time to take my hat off to these amazing people or maybe in this case my turban, so for now it’s Gazza signing out.
Send your stories to gazza@cairnslocalnews.com.au
