On Saturday, Cootamundra commemorated ANZAC Day at the 6:00am Dawn Service, 7:00am Gunfire Breakfast, 10:30am March, and the 10:45am Main Service at Albert Park.
President of the Cootamundra RSL Sub-Branch, Jeff Barrington, said both the Dawn and Main Services were well attended.
“They were very well received by the community. The Dawn service especially had a fabulous turnout, which was great to see, with probably in excess of 400 people there, which was good,” he said.
“The service itself was very similar in its approach to other years.
It was the first year that we’ve had to do pretty much the whole organisation and conduction of it without the likes of Jacqui Vincent, our life member, who used to take care of all of this stuff. It was a bit of a tough initiation for us, but it was quite successful.
“In the four years that I’ve been down here, I feel as though it did.
I think the crowd this year was bigger than the crowd in the previous year. I had a number of people come up to me after both services this year, and especially the Dawn Service, who had told us that they felt that the Dawn Service had a lot more people show up to it.
“It means a lot to see many people there. For our veteran community, it shows that they’re not forgotten. Not just the original Anzacs but for every man and woman that’s been within our armed forces, whether it be the Army, Navy or Air Force, whether they’ve served domestically or overseas, it means a lot. For myself, it shows that the younger generations are continuing that legacy, and the increased numbers over the last couple of years demonstrate that for us. As a current serving military person as well, and I stand up front and deliver the service address as the MC, to see the number of people there, especially the children and young families, is very reassuring that the legacy continues, and it’s not forgotten.
“On behalf of the Cootamundra RSL Sub-Branch, we thank each and every one of the people who came out on the morning of to support us. It really does mean the world to us.”
Jack Murray
The South West Slopes Times covers an area approximately the size of Fiji in country NSW. We look after a population of more than 50,000 people with our staff servicing 7 major towns and dozens of villages with our story telling footprint.
We offer weekly print editions at $3 a copy and we also offer digital subscriptions across 3 months $30, 6 months $60 and 12 months $120.
We are one of the last truly local independent family run newspaper businesses in the state.
Contact us today to find out how we can promote your business or organisation across our huge network by emailing ads@thetimes.net.au or by calling 0413 763 216.
If you have a news tip, lead or scoop for us please make contact as we love celebrating our communities. You can contribute articles via our South West Slopes Times website.
