Rivendell Garden Party

Rivendell Garden Party A Success!

What a glorious venue for our 2010 fundraising event! Rivendell is a school within a hospital on the Parramatta River at Concord West. The brick and sandstone building is quite majestic.

Professor Phillip Hazel, who is the director of Rivendell, was gracious in allowing us to use this beautiful place. Virginia Walker, a descendent of the original family who owned the estate and built the original convalescent hospital, gave a great talk on the history of the Walker estate and buildings.

We also had the wonderful support of the staff at Rivendell School, and we would particularly like to thank the principal, Anne Reddy, the deputy principal, Cheryl Bazzano and the senior administration manager, Lyn Fagin, for giving us permission to use the school and for supporting the event in so many practical ways.

Thanks also to Elaine Townshend, Robyn Sevastos, Angel Ioannou and the whole Life Force team for getting together beautiful items for the silent auction and our annual raffle. We are very grateful to Nicole Murray for the fabulous food.

Guests were welcomed by beautiful music from our lovely flautist Meldi Arkinstal and guitarist Peter Inglis. I am enjoying listening to Peter’s album as I write this. The music and the setting worked magic together. Susan Hurley and the Hurricanes rocked the house! Susie’s original and wonderful songs are intriguing and beautiful and their new CD will be out towards the end of the year. It was truly wonderful to experience the voices of the powerful choir, Jonah and the Wailers, led by Ian Laurence. This choir really matches with the Life Force spirit, giving out the most uplifting feeling possible. They had the whole crowd singing at the end. We sounded great, thanks to them.

Many thanks also to Lisa Forrest for being our MC. Lisa is a long-time member of the Life Force family. We truly appreciate her generosity, and her warm presence. And the biggest thanks go to you, our supporters. We had a lovely afternoon meeting you again, and being able to say hello and thanks in person.

Some photos from this event