Victoria Park was a spectacle on Sunday evening as it was lit up with blue, white and gold lanterns for the inaugural Forbes Light the Night.
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A crowd of about 150 people gathered at the park on Sunday and together raised $3,425.45 for the Leukaemia Foundation.
Event organiser, former Forbes local Kylie Shelker, was stoked with the result.
“I think it went pretty good for the first one,” she said.
“We raised more than $3400 - it’s just amazing. I thought it’d be hard to reach $1,000.”
The atmosphere at Victoria Park was very relaxed with musical entertainment by Chelsea Turner, along with a BBQ provided by Forbes Men’s Shed, a coffee van, face painting and two jumping castles.
The crowd listened to emotional talks from each of the three local Light the Night ambassadors - Judy Prior, John Baass and Cindy Turner, as well as Ms Shelker who spoke of her sister’s battle with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Judy was the ambassador for the gold lantern (to remember a loved one), John was the ambassador for the white lantern (for your own blood cancer journey) and Cindy was the ambassador for the blue lantern (to show you care).
A huge raffle was drawn following the speeches with 40 great prizes given away.
Once it got dark, the crowd lit their lanterns and took part in a walk of hope around the edge of Victoria Park to show their support for those affected by blood cancer.
While she was hoping for a few more people, Ms Shelker said the first event is always hard when people don’t know what it is.
She’s hoping next year more people will jump on board to help make it even better.
“Hopefully next year it will be a lot bigger and a lot better,” Ms Shelker said.
“I’m hoping for it to be an annual thing.”
Kylie would like to thank everyone who helped out on the night including all of the volunteers, Chelsea Turner for the entertainment, Forbes Men’s Shed for the BBQ, Alison and Malcolm from Coffee Just Rocks, Trevor Rees for the PA, Ron Kenny from Baa Moo Oink Butchers, Mick at Flint Street Butchers, Wayne from Coates Hire Parkes, Baker’s Delight Orange, Forbes Shire Council, Bernie from Mumma Bare, Michael from Jumping Beans, the Forbes Advocate, and everyone who donated prizes as well as all those who attended the event.
If anyone is interested in getting on board to form a committee for next year’s Light the Night, please call Kylie on 0406 142 136.
