The Fair Tradie Project Ball

Blog 2

The day of the Fair Tradie Project Ball arrived and there was so much to be done so everyone had to be at the South Perth Community Hall at 11:00 AM in order to set up. I had to help set up the tabels and chairs, arrange seating plans, create flower arrangements for the tables and help with the goodie bags.

At 6:00 PM we were debriefed on our roles for the night. Another girl and I were front of house and in charge of checking everyones names off at the door and informing them of where they were sitting. It soon became clear that it was going to be fairly difficult as the list of names was not in alphabetical order and many names were missing off the list. It took a little while to sort all the issues out but it was a great learning experience about what I would do differently next time. I did a lot of running around trying to find people's seats and figuring out table issues.

Once the night got underway I helped serve drinks and then Georgia the event manager asked me to model the auction items so people at the tables could see the items. I was not super keen as there was hundreds of people in the room but i worked up to courage to do it. I also had to go around and ask the guests who they thought was the best dressed for the night and who the best dancers were. At 12 PM the night was finished and we had to stay back to clean up and pack away everything. It was an extremely long day and there were a few bumps but it was a wonderful night and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

In the end $15 000 was raised for FTP to build homes for orphaned children in Jinja Uganda which was short of the $30 000 that we hoped to raise but it was still a great result. I personally learned a lot through the process of preparing for the ball and how much work is required in organising everything especially when you work for a not for profit organisation and everything comes from donations.