Top of the town

Final Newsletter

Top of the Town Charity Ball Newsletter
November 2010  Photograph courtesy of Jill Robinson

WOW!!!
Did we have a ball or What????!!!

On Wednesday morning our ears were still ringing. Was it the sultry voice of Wendy Stapleton and the melodious tones of Joe Camilleri's Saxophone, or Russell Morris's guitar and Wilbur's Rocking that had kept us all dancing till the early hours of Sunday morning, and our ears ringing until Wednesday?

"The Best One Ever", "The Best Night out since our Wedding Day" "Totally Awesome", "I could have danced all night", "I'm booking my ticket now for the next one", "Worth Every Penny", And who do you think said this... You did. These are just some of the comments still flowing back to the Western District Health Service and the committee from guests.

The whole night was magnificent; food, wine, beer, fireworks, entertainment and of course Wilbur Wilde and The Troublemakers. It even made us forget about the rain that only two days before had turned the marquee into a bigger water feature than the lake, and the landscape into something that resembled more of a quagmire than a sophisticated lakeside setting.

But the people of Hamilton lifted once again to make sure the evening went off without a hitch and most of the 510 guests had no idea how much hard work went into the previous few days to create the beautiful marquee and stunning surrounds. Even WDHS CEO, Jim Fletcher spent ten hours on the end of a mop and a shovel to help ensure the night was the resounding success it was. Let's hope he doesn't have to become one of the first beneficiaries of the digitisation of the hospital theatre as a result!

A huge thanks needs to go to all of you who came out of nowhere to help with the preparations, setting up and cleaning up for the ball. You all know who you are, too many to name individually, but including: the ladies who helped decorate and set the tables, the van drivers, the security, the washing up contingent at the Hospital and in the marquee, the WDHS ladies and gentlemen who helped look after the guests on the night ,the Hamilton & Alexandra College Students, and the many, many people who jumped on the end of mops, drills, front end loaders, bobcats and water pumps to help clean the site up before the ball and afterwards. Thank You.

PHOTOS:
Photos are currently being loaded on to the website: www.hamiltontopofthetown.com , they show a visual picture of not only the evening but all the lead up to the event. Photographs will soon be available to purchase through the website, and a designated computer in the community liaison office will be available for anyone to come in and view them all, particularly those of you who had portraits done by Brendan Roberts. In some instances we may have 10 shots of the one group and we cannot fit them all on the website.
We have to thank Brendan Roberts and Guy Le Page for the fantastic job they did on the night. As we have nearly 2,000 photos, it will be a continuous work in progress loading them on to the website over the next few weeks.

And finally where would we have been without our generous sponsors, Ace Radio and Dorevitch Pathology. Crawford River Wines, Grampians Event Hire, Olympus, Kitset Kitchens, Jigsaw Farms, and Iluka. Kerr & Co, Cogger Gurry, Mackkcon Homes, WHK, The Spectator. South Grampians Shire and Bendigo Radiology. Craig Collins Builders, Southern Grampians Livestock & Real Estate, Vic Urban, Health Science, Southern Finance Group, Macdonalds Family Restaurant, Health Super, Dunkeld Pastoral and Westpac. They all contributed enormously towards helping us raise over $215,000 for the digitisation of the hospital theatres. Our sincere gratitude is extended to them for their overwhelmingly generous support.

A Final Message and Thank you from WDHS CEO Jim Fletcher:

The third Top of the Town Charity Ball was an outstanding fundraising success for Western District Health Service, raising over $215,000 towards the $600,000 theatre equipment upgrade to bring digital technology to Hamilton Base Hospital operating theatres.

The outstanding success of the Top of the Town Charity Ball can be put down to three major factors, namely the dedication and commitment of the talented organising committee who have spent the last 20 months meticulously planning and organising the event to make it a huge success, the outstanding support and goodwill of major sponsors and the Hamilton Business community and dedication and goodwill of hundreds of volunteers and Western District Health Services Staff.

Our Health Service and staff are certainly privileged and honoured to receive such great community support which is something we should cherish and appreciate.

The Top of the Town Charity Ball had established a reputation as not only one of the Southern Grampians premiere events but also of one of Regional Victoria's premiere events. This event provides an opportunity for the Health Service and Southern Grampians community to display its rich talents.

I congratulate and thank our Top of the Town committee members Ian Whiting (Chair) , Tony and Jenny MacGillivray, Francis Pekin, Peter Franklin, Tom Jordan, Deb Howcroft, Renae Porter, Cheryl Gascoigne, Jose Cloete, Helen Diprose, Tim Mason, Colin Thompson, Kerry Martin, Leonie Sharrock, and Robyn Holcombe who with the support of sponsors, Hamilton businesses and hundreds of volunteers including Hamilton and Alexandra College, Lions Club and Western District Health Service staff made the 201 0 Top of the Town Ball such a spectacular and huge success.
As a result of this outstanding success and overwhelming support we will be one of the first Regional and Rural Health Services to introduce digital technology into our theatres thereby establishing them as a Centre for Excellence. This upgrade will be fully installed by mid January 2011.

I trust that the 2010 Top of the Town Charity Ball provided you with a night to be remembered and I look forward to your support for the next event in about three years time.

Jim Fletcher
Chief Executive Officer
Western District Health Service

The Hamilton Spectator will be running a full feature on the ball in next Saturday's edition of the paper (13th Novmeber) where all our sponsors and volunteers will be publicly thanked.