The Blackwood Rotary Fair has been held every year since 1975. From its beginning it has always been a Community Service project, with The Rotary Club of Blackwood providing stalls for community groups who use the opportunity to raise funds for their organisations.  It is a fun day for the whole family with food, produce, books, handicrafts and plants for sale with entertainment and plenty for the children to do. The Fair is held at Karinya Reserve on Shepherds Hill Road each November.

The 2011 Fair was held at Karinya Reserve on Sunday 13th November.

The Rotary Club of Blackwood would like to extend a big “Thank You” to everyone involved in the 36th Annual Christmas Fair held on Sunday 13 November. Without the help of a range of people and groups in the community this popular event could just not happen. This includes the Blackwood Times, the CFS, Lions, the local schools and businesses, a range of community groups, the Rotarians and all the local people who turned up on Sunday to make all the effort worthwhile.

There are so many elements that we rely on coming together for the fair. One element we have no control over is the weather. One year it was too hot to host the event and this year we had three showers of rain which rather than threaten the fair actually helped to cool everything down. It was fun to watch Mums dancing with children in the rain covered by big colourful umbrellas and great to hear children leaving the fair at the end of the day telling us how “cool” they thought it all was.

So how much value was the fair to the Blackwood community? As one of the Lions members said at the BBQ following the packing up at the end of the day, “Yes it is great that we raised $7,500  for projects, but even more importantly we gave the community a chance to come together for a great day of fun and company”. And at the end of the day that is what it is all about for Rotary – service to the community.