WHEN IT COMES TO ORGANISING A MELBOURNE CUP EVENT, CATHERINE COOPER IS A SURE BET.
The GemLife Bribie Island homeowner has been organising the resort’s Melbourne Cup event for the past four years and has the winning formula for fun.
“My late husband and I moved into GemLife Bribie Island before the Country Club was complete,” she said. “After my husband had passed, I wanted to get back into the social side of things and I became involved in helping organise the residents’ events.
“After a while, I wanted to step back a little, so I now pick and choose the events I want to be involved in and Melbourne Cup is top of the list.”
Catherine said she bases the community event on one she successfully ran in her backyard before she moved to GemLife.
“We hold $1 and $2 sweeps where people draw a wooden tile with a number which corresponds to a horse in the race,” she said. “We have residents who run betting tables and they just love it. In fact, they volunteer for that job year after year.
“We dress up the tables and bring out Ned the cardboard horse, although he met with an accident last year and will need propping up.”
A number of people get into the spirit of the day and dress up as jockeys and bookmakers or put on their best hats or fabulous fascinators.
“We used to have a best dressed competition, but we’re all very casual here,” said Catherine.
“We ask everyone to BYO. Homeowner Mick Lukowski wears his jockey hat and gets the race up on the big screen for us.
“Last year we had 140 people attend and everyone paid in $5 which went to purchasing lucky door prizes which meant we had 30 to 40 items to give away.”