The
Garden Party
Sunday March 30th dawned bright and clear to everyone’s relief, and feverous preparation was soon underway for Mercy Hospice Auckland’s first Garden Party. By all accounts it was a beautiful day in many different ways.
For a start the venue was superb. The beautiful grounds and formal gardens of Florence Court, were kindly provided for the day by John and Alma Sax.
The sun shone on all who came too and the large marquee complete with formal box garden at its centre, was welcome relief.
The guests too all looked beautiful, many making an extra effort to dress in real garden party style with well over half the crowd wearing hats. No wonder the best hat competition was hotly contested, and contributed significantly to the day’s total funds raised of over $32,000.
There were many highlights of the day – a great array of items for the silent auction – a ‘boy’s package’ of fishing rod, reel, CRC goods, life vests and more, a surfboard and wetsuit, French champagne, a weekend at Waiheke.
There was a wonderful parade of bygone era garden party fashions, the garments belonging to Joan McGill who also compered the show.
There was a guest appearance by Tina Cross and Aaron Gilmour of Dancing with the Stars fame. Unfortunately Tina had damaged her knee and couldn’t dance, but instead sang several very moving songs which she had written about a close friend who had died of cancer. As many said afterwards, they were truly ‘sung from the heart’.
Of course there was good wine, as well as a Coopers Creek tasting table, a delicious ploughman’s lunch, a well-supported raffle, the prize for which was a table at the hospice’s 10 lunch, a celebrity tennis match, buskers on the lawn…Something for everyone, which everyone really enjoyed. So much so that in fact we hope to hold a similar style event next year.
THANKS MUST GO TO OUR HOSTS JOHN AND ALMA SAX. OUR SPONSORS ANZ PRIVATE BANK, ARA CHARITABLE TRUST, BARFOOT AND THOMPSON PARNELL, DATACOM, WALKER AND HALL, TOWN AND COUNTRY MARQUEE HIRE, FLORAL AND THEME DESIGN AND COOPERS CREEK. ALSO TO JOAN MCGILP, WENDY HILL, JOHN HUDSON, BRETT STEVEN AND DAVID LEWIS FOR ALL THEIR SUPPORT.
Gallery
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