The Magic of Christmas Night Market and Mid Winter Markets are held at the Awapuni racecourse annually.
Milson Rotary is there to manage the car parking during the event, with members volunteering day and night to ensure the safe parking of visitor vehicles.
These events are major fundraisers for the club, with funds being donated to the many organisations the club supports.
Samantha and Kylie started the Christmas Winter Night Market as a community-based fundraising project, with all profits being donated to Arohanui Hospices. Through our links with Hospice, our involvement was initially enlisted to help sort out the chaos of getting people in and out of the Te Manawa foyer with no car parking. Far too many people in far too small a place.
The Club was not paid separately but was part of the fundraising effort. The next year, 2015, the event moved to the Awapuni Racecourse. An easier job, organising the chaos at the gate pinch point and parking the cars as efficiently as possible. Still chaos, the club was paid $1000 for this.
We saw potential in this as both a profile-raising and a fundraising exercise, and in 2016 introduced gold coin donations, and in 2017 a second mid-winter market was added. We now raise between $7-10,000/yr, which is about $60/hr per volunteer.
Today we use a well-tested template with a small group of volunteers (8-10). Set up is usually done the day before, and about 200 road cones are laid out.
We saw potential in this as both a profile-raising and a fundraising exercise, and in 2016 introduced gold coin donations, and in 2017 a second mid-winter market was added. We now raise between $7-10,000/yr, which is about $60/hr per volunteer.
Today we use a well-tested template with a small group of volunteers (8-10). Set up is usually done the day before, and about 200 road cones are laid out.