On Sunday 15^th November 2015, Tea Gardens Hawks Nest Surf Life Saving Club (TGHN SLSC) hosted the charity event “Body Shop for Boobs on the Balcony” to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Mother Nature was not kind to us on the day and I believe the wet weather may have resulted in the smaller than expected numbers. However, we had approximately 40 wonderful women attend the event with the majority of those women being TGHN SLSC members, friends and guests. 

We did not let the wet weather spoil the occasion and turned the event into “Body Shop for Boobs in the TGHN SLSC Bar”!

There was no entry fee for this charity event and all ladies received a Glass of Champagne on arrival, kindly donated by TGHN SLSC, a Lucky Door Prize Ticket and their “Pink Bit” (Small piece of Pink fabric).

Brooke Turner from “The Body Shop at Home” provided a wonderful presentation of Body Shop products, giving some lucky ladies Mini Lip and Brow Makeovers and organising lots of fun games.

Vitamin Bead put a beautiful collection of clothes and jewellery together for a very stylish Fashion Parade. Local TGHN SLSC teenagers Windjana Chester, Maddy McLennan and Kenzie Young strutted their stuff to showcase a variety of trendy summer clothing, all available from Vitamin Bead, Tea Gardens this season.

A continuous raffle was also a highlight of the event. Tickets were drawn every 20 minutes with winners selecting prizes from the mystery gift table. All prizes were generously donated by local Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest businesses as well as community members. TGHN SLSC Nippers, Molly and Paris Young worked tirelessly throughout the event ensuring all tickets were sold. I believe that most ladies left the event with a special something from the raffle.

I would like to acknowledge and thank the following businesses for their generous donations for the raffle;

Alana’s Gifts and Home wares, Mungo Road Surf Shop, Hawks Nest Newsagency, Myall Pharmacy, Ezy Kayaks, Sumeru, Vitamin Bead, BT Clothing, Hawks Nest Cellars, BYO Liquor Stax Hawks Nest, Jenny Hyde – Tile Rescue, Roger at Leading Edge Computers and Brooke Turner from The Body Shop at Home.

Tea Gardens Coles Supermarket donated an array of savoury platters for the event and SO-LO Warehouse; Tea Gardens donated all the plastics champagne glasses to house the ladies refreshments.

Tea Gardens Bakehouse and Hawks Nest Bakehouse donated a Mountain load of cakes and slices for the event.  I can assure you that these delicious treats went down very well with all who attended the event. Thank you so much to both Bakehouses!

Nicola Young and Amanda Osmond were our MC’s for the event as well as coordinating fun games throughout the afternoon. The ‘Pink Bits’ games was a charity favourite. If Nicola made the call “Show us your pink bits!”, all the ladies had to produce the small piece of pink fabric they were given upon entry. Failure to find or produce this ‘Pink bit’ resulted in a donation to the charity bucket. (Little did they know, that I was secretly going to tables stealing people’s pink bits throughout the afternoon).

A HUGE THANK YOU needs to be given to Brooke Turner from ‘The Body Shop at Home’ who donated 15% of all her sales from the day straight back to the Breast cancer research Foundation which totalled $250.00.

An ENORMOUS THANK YOU needs to be given to the Tea Gardens Country Club who generously donated $250.00 towards the cause. A portion of this donation was used to assist with catering costs and the remainder went directly to the Breast Cancer research Foundation.

Towards the end of the afternoon, Husbands, fathers and sons of the guests and local TGHN SLSC members joined us at the clubhouse. Each and every one of these males ‘gate crashers’ put their hands into their pockets and made donations. Thank you to you all.

At the end of the event, all profits were counted and I am so pleased to announce that “The Body Shop for Boobs on the Balcony (come Bar) raised an amazing $1027.35. It really needs to be noted that this money was raised entirely through selling tickets for a raffle where all prizes were donated by the community and from those beautiful women who attended the event  just donating their own money to what we all believe is such a worthy cause.

It was a really fun and successful afternoon. I would like to thank all the women who attended the event for your generosity and company. A huge Thank you to all those who assisted with the preparation and coordination of the event and finally THANK YOU to the TGHN SLSC and the family that comes with such a wonderful club, your support and dedication to community events and volunteer work is unwavering.