Rotaract and Narrabri Public School team up for trivia night success

Narrabri Rotaract and Narrabri Public School teamed up for a monthly trivia night at the Tourist Hotel, raising more than $1000 to help support the school in its fundraising efforts.

NPS reached out to the Rotaract Club for help to raise money for their end of year celebrations and future excursions, and the crew were more than happy to help.

The money raised through the trivia night and raffles will go directly back into extra experiences for NPS students, including excursions, incursions, and celebrations.

Relieving principal Claire Allen thought the event was a great success and appreciated the enthusiasm and support from trivia regulars, staff, and families.

“Our staff absolutely love a good trivia night, assistant principal Mr Heffernan had previously attended a Rotaract run event and was very impressed with the fun atmosphere and the professionalism with which the event was run,” said Mrs Allen.

“The funds will go a long way to reducing the additional costs involved in these opportunities.”

The beer garden was fully booked out with a record 100 people in attendance, the most the trivia night had ever seen.

Manager of the Tourist Hotel, Morgan Jones was happy to facilitate the trivia night for Rotaract and was amazed at how the community embraced it.

“There was definitely a lot going on at the Tourist … with our new happy hour and then a huge trivia night,” said Mr Jones.

“It’s been amazing to watch the Rotaract trivia nights grow from 30 people to 100 people, and it’s great to see the passion they have to create a positive impact in our town.”

President of Rotaract, Kodey Stanford was happy that the trivia night could be used to support the local school.

“Narrabri Public took the initiative and reached out to us to help them raise the funds and we thought, why not let them jump onboard trivia night,” said Ms Stanford.

“It was even better coming off the back of the happy hour, people came in early for that then stuck around for something fun and different to do on a Friday night.”

Rotaract have used their trivia night for fundraising before, supporting both Karen Kirkby and Ben Duncan, and raising $1000 between the two to put towards the Stars of Narrabri – dancing for a cure for cancer.

“This is a great avenue for the community, and it’s really sparked something for us, that we can now offer to other groups, schools, sporting bodies or charity groups to raise funds,” said Ms Stanford.

“All they have to do is approach us.”

Mrs Allen also encourages the rest of the community to reach out to Rotaract and take up the community resource.

“It was lovely to see some of our former students being outstanding members of their community,” said Mrs Allen.

“We loved the experience, and it is definitely going to become an annual event for NPS, while Rotaract is able to accommodate us.

“It was an incredible night. The atmosphere was vibrant and the whole event was run with a great balance of competitive spirit and good humour.”

This is not the first time Rotaract has used their community resources to help Narrabri schools.

With the first successful year of their Narrabri High School mentorship program run in collaboration with Narrabri Industrial Network (NIN), they have also implemented two new scholarship awards for students.

The introduction of the Rotaract Club of Narrabri Community Service Award and the Rotaract Club of Narrabri and Narrabri Industrial Network Impact Award will both go to two Year 12 students who are participating in the mentorship program. The funds will support award winners in their future career endeavours.

“It was really exciting, and really nice to see all the parents and the teachers come out and support the school and support us,” said Ms Stanford.

“Trivia night is something different to raise money than a sausage sizzle and bake sale that gets the whole community engaged, in one room.”