All the money raised is going to charity. Photo / Lewis Gardner
All the money raised is going to charity. Photo / Lewis Gardner
The annual parish fair filled All Saints church and its neighbouring buildings in Whanganui East on Saturday.
All Saints parish manager Din Bandara said while the event was traditionally for the sale of plants, a lot of other bits and pieces were added this year.
"The Anglican parish used tobe four different parishes, and we amalgamated six years ago," Bandara said.
The plant sale was the parish's big sale of the year, he said.
"That was started around 15 years ago, and when we all came together in 2016-17, we thought we should be united in our fundraising as well."
"We have a youth group of about 30 kids and their leader, Nathan, is a carpenter by trade," Bandara said.
"They made oversized Jenga, planter boxes, and even a couple of picnic tables."
There were also flower bouquets, china, baking, crafts, a Christmas stall, and a small cafe with Devonshire tea.
"As a parish support, we support another member of our parish, Paul Fletcher, who does Common Good Coffee. He supplied fresh barista coffee on the day."
Despite the ongoing threat of Covid-19 and the need to have a maximum of 100 people inside at any one time, Bandara said the organisers were determined to make the fair happen.
"I thought that might impact the number of people coming and going, but we had just as many as last year, if not more.
"A big thank you needs to go out to Neville Gorrie, Tabia Braun, and Sara Gaskin, they were the three big coordinators.
"Without them, it wouldn't have gone ahead."
Covid-19 restrictions didn't put a dampener on the event. Photo / Lewis Gardner
As for next year's event, Bandara said he was thinking about going a little more "out of the box".
"We were meant to have a couple of pianists play outside this year, but we scrapped that because of the weather forecast.
