On ANZAC Day we hosted the Elwood community memorial ANZAC service. By my estimate there were over 500 people attending in cold conditions. The event was organised by the Friends of Elwood RSL and we played our part as host venue.

Congratulations to the organising committee and especially to our Club Manager – Sarah, and Liz Shaw for all their superb event management, and a huge thanks to the 20 club members who volunteered to help on the day.

Mark Foster – Commodore, Elwood Sailing Club.

For further photos and the managers report please 

On Saturday 25th April – the friends of the Elwood RSL celebrated the 100th year of celebrations of Anzac Day, hosting the event at our club.  As you will know The Elwood RSL was unfortunately demolished to build a new apartment block.  The friends of the RSL was formed by business owners in Elwood, including one of our main sponsor Bendigo Bank.

Despite the overcast weather a large crowd stood at 9 am in front of the club, I would approximately say around 500 people. The traditional ceromony lasted for an hour and the atmosphere was extremely emotional  as the watchers stood under there umbrellas, wet and cold but with the notion that for an hour of discomfort it was not comparable to the hours, days and months that our troops spent in the trenches.

Amazingly during the last post a Tiger Moth flew past ending a fantastic service.

During the service our members up stairs were frantically cooking up a couple of hundred bacon and egg rolls, as part of the traditional gun mans breakfast usually supplied after the service – we couldn’t find the Turkish Coffee.

A large number of the crowd came up to enjoy the breakfast and the large display of the Elwood RSL Memorabilla.  Which had a long Poppy Field painting as a show piece.

There were also performances from Elwood has talent – with singers of all ages. It was a brilliant morning and enjoyed by all – the club had a a fantastic buzz, and are glad to announce that we will host this service again next year.

We would like to thank all of those members that volunteered that morning, whether tea making or chefing the day was made tremendous with the help of your efforts and it was great to see so many members supporting the day.

Sarah Thompson – Club Manager, Elwood Sailing Club.