House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-08 Daily Xml

Contents

Country Fire Service

Mrs PEARCE (King) (15:22): Two local soccer clubs have once again come together and donned their boots, all to raise important funds for an incredible cause last weekend: our local CFS stations—two stations that not only have worked hard during the bushfire season for our community but also go and support other communities where there is need. Just last weekend, some were near Marion Bay lending a hand, and recently some were also in Port Lincoln. In fact, during the event, the One Tree Hill CFS also was called to help at an incident on Black Top Road, because that is what these incredible volunteers do: they roll up their sleeves and they help wherever there is a need.

For the fourth year in a row, the Tea Tree Gully City Soccer Club and One Tree Hill Soccer Club came together to help raise awareness about fire safety within the local community, helping to build stronger connections with the community and the crews who work so hard to protect us. Food trucks, stalls, children's entertainment and a licensed bar all formed part of the day, along with a raffle, where all proceeds went to the One Tree Hill and Tea Tree Gully CFS stations.

I would like to thank all who contributed to helping make the event as successful as it was: Bailey Property for donating the coffees for the day so that those proceeds could be included in the fundraising efforts, Pizza Reggina for their amazing wood oven fired pizzas, and Redstar Media for capturing some amazing content and also emceeing throughout the day.

To the amazing local businesses who support these clubs and those who donated goods that helped create one enticing raffle, thank you. Thank you to SportsPower Golden Grove, Little Oak Studio, The Fox and Firkin, Garden Grove Supplies, Highercombe Golf Club, Autobarn Gilles Plains, Tron Civil Contracting, Makesafe Traffic Management, I&R Electrical Solutions, The Truck Factory, HM Rendering Group and PDR Sport.

Thank you also to the countless committee members, volunteers, coaches, team managers and players from all nine teams who took to the field on the day. Yes, that is right: nine teams, players of all ages, coming together to make this an absolute day of fun. We had colts, we had under 11s, we had reserves, we had station versus station in a play-off against one another, we had under 9s, we had the A grade and of course we had the mascots.

This is an event that I have been proud to support since its creation. It is something that I am proud to support alongside my colleagues, the member for Newland, the member for Wright and the federal member for Makin, because this event is a key example of what I love so much about my local community. We all come together to support one another, helping to make our community strong. Sporting clubs, local businesses, local council, members of parliament and members of the community all come together in recognition of the hard work done by our local CFS crews, making our community stronger together.

Through everyone's extraordinary efforts, it is looking as though $6,000 was raised this Sunday just gone, and it may be more. I have been informed by the clubs that calculations are still underway, but they have cleared this incredible milestone. That brings us to about $25,000 that they have raised over the course of four years of hosting this event. That is $25,000 thanks to two incredible soccer clubs, Tea Tree Gully City Soccer Club and One Tree Hill Soccer Club, working hard with the community. I sincerely thank both of the clubs for their extraordinary efforts.

You must be wondering, Mr Speaker, who won the day? Well, of course it was our community. But if you want to know which team, it was quite tight on the ground but I am pretty sure that Tea Tree Gully City Soccer Club took the win yet again, although I do feel that next year the Billies will come back stronger than ever and give quite fierce competition and maybe take the shield. So I do encourage you all to keep an eye out for this event next year. Put it in your diaries and come to see the amazing sportsmanship for yourselves.