Young Shire Council is planning to reimburse the hall hire fee for a concert held in Young at the weekend which featured the Australian Rugby Choir.
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The concert, held at the Young Town Hall, was organised to raise funds for the local branch of CanAssist.
This decision reversal means an extra $220 may be added to CanAssist’s total of $2600 raised as a result of Saturday night’s concert.
“Excellent,” were the words of Young-Boorowa CanAssist branch president Gail Hanigan when she received the phone call from council’s general manager Peter Vlatko.
“I appreciate what Peter has done – he’s in an unenviable position to make these decisions [to recommend to councillors] which he shouldn’t have to make,” Gail said.
At council’s May 15 monthly meeting, councillors had a lengthy discussion about the town hall hire fee after council was criticised for refusing to waive the fee for the choir.
As a result of that debate the council resolved to determine a policy around the hire of the town hall for charity events.
Saturday night’s concert, which also featured local performers such as the Choir of the Southern Cross, Chamber Choir, Red Cherry Jazz Ensemble and Young vocalists, managed to draw in around 140 members of the public.
The night’s final number saw 87 people from the Rugby Choir and the Choir of the Southern Cross combined perform four verses of Sibelius’ ‘Be Still My Soul’.
“It’s going to be memorable because we’ve had no rehearsal,” one member from the Rugby Choir joked.
At the conclusion of the evening, Gail Hanigan presented the Rugby Choir with an appreciation certificate, thanking them for donating all the proceeds of the night to CanAssist.
Australian Rugby Choir president Neil Fleming presented some gifts to local performers including Young Regional School of Music director who acted as MC for the night Stuart Bruce, soprano Julie O’Connor, vocalist Judy Barker and Choir of the Southern Cross conductor Mark Brooker.
It was a thrilling result for Gail Hanigan.
“We’re very happy [with the amount raised] – we have a patient who has just spent $380 on an MRI scan, and that’s just one,” Gail said.
“And the nearest service for any specialist treatment is 300 kilometres away so you have petrol to think of too,” she said.
And what did the 40-man choir and their spouses think of the town?
“Very tidy,” one spouse, Lee Ferrari said, “I couldn’t believe how clean the streets are, there’s nothing in the gutters – so much cleaner than Canberra.”
Stephen Wedd from the Rugby Choir said his wife “melted the credit card in some local clothing/shoe stores”.
