By Yvonne Pflieger

What an eventful week it has been! We had our Christmas Party and participated in Ocean Care Day. A big thank you to all our volunteers who made this possible!

Christmas Party

Last Wednesday we invited our members and friends to celebrate the beginning of the festive season by spending an evening in the Co-Op, to do some late night shopping and have a chat to other community members over a glass of organic wine from Tamburlaine Wines (or two). A steady stream of people kept dropping in and joining the cheerful party. Sam Touma was so kind again to sing and play the guitar – absolutely lovely, making the evening even more festive. Thank you, Sam!

Music Guitar
Christmas Party
Music Guitar
Christmas Party
Music Guitar

Ocean Care Day

Sunday was Ocean Care Day, the yearly event organized by Manly Environment Centre, bringing together over 45 community and environmental groups and organizations to celebrate our oceans. This year’s theme was ‘Make Our Sea Plastic Free’.

Quite a few of our members were engaged at different stalls and some even with several groups, spreading the word about permaculture, how to Stop Adani, Sea Shepherd, Save our Sharks and more. Keelah and Portia were interviewed on stage and Portia also entertained the crowd with her beautiful music.

Ocean Care Day is a great opportunity for the Co-Op to encourage consumers to think differently and look for alternatives for their shopping needs, to buy packaging-free and avoid single-use items.

It was a successful and busy day for all our volunteers. A lot of people stopped and were interested in learning more about a zero waste lifestyle and the different products we were offering. KeepCups, beeswax wraps and the Christmas-themed Who Gives A Crap toilet paper were bestsellers. It was a lovely day, perfect weather and it was great to see the passion for the environment and our oceans – a lovely and very inspiring day on Manly’s beautiful beachfront. We will surely be back next year! 🙂

A big thank you to our volunteers on the day: Angus and son, Lauren, Jarrod, Stuart, Colin, Tyler, Yvonne, Josephine and Celine! It would not have been possible without you! 🙂

Ocean Care Day Stall
Ocean Care Day Stall
Manly beach front
Gifts
Ocean Care Day Stall
Manly Corso