The Rotary Club of Apia has marked the 25th anniversary of its annual Melbourne Cup Race Day fundraiser, with crowds flocking to Robert Louis Stevenson Museum to celebrate this year’s races.
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The event was full of all the usual glitz and glamour, with a fashion parade, raffles and auctions.
The fashion parade was done in two parts, with a company showing off clothes, and then the men and women attending the event getting the chance to strut their stuff.
Although Samoa did not see any races locally, the fundraiser gave people a taste of the action, with hobby horse and table top horse races taking place while the action in Melbourne was shown live on television.
Rotary Club of Apia President Elect/Secretary Susan Faoagali said the milestone event was an exciting occasion. “It’s a small club to do a big thing,” Dr. Faoagali told the Samoa Observer.
Running the event was only possible thanks to massive volunteer support, with many university students lending a hand, along with various members of the community.
Dr. Faoagali said the efforts were valiant, as previous race day fundraisers had raised between $25,000-$35,000.
“The money that comes from this goes to the community, that’s the significance of this I think.”
Over the past two and a half decades, health and education projects had been rotary’s big focus, to benefit the sick and injured, as well as children. “This is the Samoan community contributing to their own community,” Dr. Faoagali said.
“We couldn’t have done our projects without a huge [fundraiser] like this.
She loved the chance for men and women to get together and dress up, too.
Over the years, the President- Elect said there had been noticeable changes in fashion.
Most notably, everyone wore hats now – a big change from when the fundraiser began, Dr. Faoagali said.
Jennie Herring, Rotary’s District Governor for parts of Auckland, New Zealand, and various Pacific Islands, said it was great to see the race day event so beloved by the community.
“Each rotary club has a signature event and I would say this is Apia Rotary’s signature event, it’s such a great event.”
It was also a major financial boost for the club, as its biggest fundraiser of the year, she said.
Dr. Faoagali said this year’s event had been well-supported by the business community, with 16 corporate tables sold at the race day fundraiser.
A race-day themed raffle on Sunday had already raised $10,000 too, she said.
The final amount raised was not yet known, she said.
The public were getting into the festivities too, with people taking time off work to attend.
Among them was Sonya Harrison, who attended last year’s Melbourne Cup in Australia.
She said Samoa’s celebrations of the races were quite different, but she had found plenty to love.
“It has to be the horse race on the table,” she laughed.
Heather Tannock was also among the crowd, and said she loved being part of the fundraising race day event.
“Also winning the first raffle, that was pretty cool!” Her prize was a beauty treatment.
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