THE Home Hill Chamber of Commerce has presented Certificates of Appreciation to members of the Home Hill community who have maintained the cane fields in readiness for past Hand Cane Cutting Championships, as well as the staff of local community radio station, Sweet FM for their ongoing support for the Burdekin Community.
The presentations were made by the Chamber’s Vice President, Uli Liessmann at the start of the Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting held at the Home Hill Community Sports Club on August 17.
Certificates were initially presented to Doug Chappell and Chris Cannavan—and many other supporters—who contributed large amounts of their own time, money and equipment over a number of years to ensure there was a ready crop of cane to be the centre piece of the “First Cane Fire of the Season”, which attracted large crowds of locals and visitors each year to the opening of the Sweet Days, Hot Nights Festival.
While the two men are no longer associated with the Festival, Mr Liessmann said Mr Chappell and Mr Cannavan “and a lot of others” had done the town proud in preparing for
the Cane Cutting Championships with many hours of dedication, for which he thanked them both.
Mr Chappell said so many people had come along and done things towards supporting the event in what was a community effort, while Mr Cannavan had put his name to the cane which was sent to the mill for crushing.
Mr Cannavan also passed his thanks on to the Chamber of Commerce for the recognition for their efforts.
Mr Liessmann also presented a Certificate of Appreciation to the Manager of Sweet FM,
Charlie Scuderi who, he said, “lives there”, referring to the many hours he puts into ensuring the community radio station continues to broadcast.
Mr Scuderi, in response, thanked his dedicated band of volunteers for the good job they were doing for the radio station.
