By Margaret Carey

Wow. What a night. Over 150 people joined us to promote and celebrate the CEF of Grenfell and its past and present recipients at the fundraising ball on Saturday evening. With a great cross section of the community with three generations of some families attending, there was a warm, excited atmosphere where everyone came ready to give so generously.

With the great support of Grenfell Bowling Club and Bromar Engineering, guests enjoyed hearing about CEF of Grenfell and its achievements since 2017, and most importantly, hearing from some of our past and present recipients.

They told about their area of study from child care and teaching, to engineering and building, to nursing and pharmacy; and how the support, including the financial, really helped with their transition to post school learning. They were wonderful ambassadors for what our community supports.

Thanks to Jack Whitty’s professional auctioneering skills, the auction was a real hoot. The mystery boxes really warmed the crowd up, with the major items of the fire wood holder and the family ticket to Grenfell Go Karts really had bids flying around the room.

In between the talks and auctions, the musical entertainment from Easy Goin’ was excellent. It didn’t take them long to have the crowd up and dancing to music that we all knew. They kept the vibe going all night long.

We had so many local businesses donate towards the auction and raffle prizes. Thank you. These donations were so invaluable to our fundraising efforts.

The night has made a substantial contribution towards our funds for 2026 scholarships.

Thank you to everyone who attended, including our virtual guests, to all the community business donors, our recipients who spoke and our committee for bringing it together. A wonderful community celebration.

It is spring now. Applications for CEF of Grenfell 2026 scholarships are now open. Closing date is 30 November 2025. Go to https://cef.org.au/apply-for-a-grant/.