News
The Glengarry 50th Reunion committee is in full-swing organising a pop-up museum, a market day, movie night, orchard planting and social get-togethers from October 21-24.
Long-time Glengarry resident and reunion committee member Fiona Adams said Glengarry was a wonderful place to grow up and live and encouraged anyone interested to come along and help celebrate the milestone.
Two of her favourite Glengarry memories were circus elephants grazing in the park and the time a Michael Jackson impersonator rolled up to the Woolworths supermarket in a stretch limousine.
Adams works at Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which occupies the old Woolworths building, and said it along with community initiatives such as the monthly market, arts workshops and the annual Fire and Light Festival were factors in the suburb’s revival after a slump in fortunes during the 1990s and early 2000s.
The shopping centre has filled up again and the tight-knit community has come alive again, Adams said.
“It’s nice because it’s come back up again and it’s nice because it’s getting that friendly feel back. It’s almost like a village feel. Everyone looks out for each other,” Adams said.
The reunion starts on the Friday with open days at the former Surrey Park School (now the Surrey Park Early Learning Centre and MYPLC) and Glengarry Kindergarten. Organisers are also hoping to have other schools in the area open for former pupils to have a wander through
A family movie night in the ReStore carpark is being held on Friday night, with free popcorn.
On Saturday the ‘Our Amazing Place’ theme kicks into top gear with a community day from 10am -3pm in the Glengarry Shopping Centre. There will be market stalls, sports activities, entertainment, shops open and a fun scavenger hunt for the kids.
Memories will flood back that night with people invited to reminisce and share stories of the past five decades at the Eastern Suburbs Tavern function room. A church service at Eastside Baptist Church begins celebrations on Sunday, followed by a family picnic and an orchard tree planting.
“We want people to help us transform the Derwent Cres playground into an orchard to commemorate 50 years of the Glengarry Shopping Centre,” co-organiser Rebecca Amundsen said.
As the Glengarry pub was the place to do karaoke back in the day, those keen to exercise their vocal chords can rip into it on the Sunday afternoon.
A Glengarry Pop-Up Museum will be open daily from October 17-24, and Amundsen said reunion organisers were keen to hear from people with stories and memorabilia from Glengarry throughout the past 50 years.