Life Membership for Diane
While the Cootamundra Picnic Races wasn’t quite the day the committee had envisioned, a good social day was had by all who attended the event after the Saturday 6th April race meeting had to be abandoned due to the wet weather.
President of the committee Diane Williams had an early and not so great start to the day, arriving at the racecourse at 5.30am to find a mangled mess of marquees blown into the car park. However, the day went on, minus the racing, but thanks to the community who pulled together to help out at what was a good social occasion for those in attendance.
“People supported the day, the numbers were well and truly down, but it was so lovely to see so many people wearing blue to support the mental health side of what we were trying to do, and that’s why we kept it going because it’s about supporting people, especially out in the country,” Diane said.
“We could have easily just stopped the whole day, but it’s about supporting each other. A lot of people also travelled to come and catch up with their friends, so we were more than happy to keep it going.”
An early morning ring around to the Council, Southwest Fuels and the Soccer Club saw more marquees sourced for the day as well as an abundance of help to put them up after an SOS call went out to the community.
“The town was wonderful and really good in coming together to help, the community spirit was just great,” Diane said.
The Fashions on the Field competition went ahead with a lot of success, with a good number of entries vying for some fantastic prizes. “Fashions on the Field was wonderful, and it was so lovely to see all the blue,” Diane said.
“We’ve had some lovely phone calls from people who said how much they enjoyed it, so that was really good.”
Rain at around 4pm had people running for cover but did not put too much of a dampener on the tail end of the day. “We tried to keep things as normal as we could, but one thing I cannot control is the weather,” Diane said.
“We’ve only got a small committee and everyone works full time, but it’s been great because we’ve had three messages so far from people wanting to come onto the committee, so that’s wonderful. A few more would be great because more hands make light work, and we’d hate to lose it.”
The committee thanks its sponsors for the day and all those who ventured out to support the event. “We’d never have a race meeting without sponsors and people who come even though we don’t have horses,” Diane said.
“And a big thank you to everyone who helped Saturday morning when we got stuck.”
Later in the day, Diane was awarded a Life Membership after 27 years on the Picnic Races Committee, nine of those as president. “They really surprised me with that, but I was very grateful,” she said.
