General News
16 July, 2025
Simpson hosts day full of family fun
SCHOOL holiday fun was in full swing last Tuesday as Simpson and District Kindergarten hosted their own family fun day.
The event boasted many activities, including face painting, plaster art, colouring, biscuit decorating, playdough and a book swap.
The feature of the fun day was Dazzling Dan the Magic Man who performed a magic show, aweing the full crowd of excited children and families.
Timboon Op Shop (TOPS) and the Simpson and District Lions Club both sponsored the event, which took place at the Simpson Recreation Reserve.
Susan Benson and Kate McVilly said they organised the event with the intention of bringing the community together.
“Because they don’t do that fun for kids festival in Warrnambool anymore, we thought we would do our own little kids festival in Simpson, so that’s sort of how the idea came about,” Mrs Benson said.
“We thought up what kind of performance we could have and we’ve made as much stuff as we could provide ourselves.
“I’ve made playdough for the playdough table – we just went to Kmart and got the plasters, so we’ve kept it low-cost.
“It’s all been made possible when I asked for a little bit of sponsorship from TOPS – they were extremely generous.
“Same with the Simpson Lion’s Club – they have been incredibly generous with their time and the food as well.”
TOPS coordinator Brenda Parfett said the kindergarten sent a request for $300, but the op shop committee decided to send more to support the day.
“The committee thought that’s not really enough, we thought we would give them $1000 for the whole family fun day,” she said.
“Because of the situation of dairying and the drought at the moment, we thought it was a wonderful initiative of theirs to include the whole family and not just the kindergarten.
“Over many years the Simpson community have always supported us with donations of goods that we can sell in our TOPS shop.
“Simpson organisations rarely ask for financial assistance and that is another reason we wanted to help the kindergarten with their family fun day.
“We feel it’s very inclusive of all residents.”
Mrs Benson said they had a booking of 56 children over the age of one to attend the event.
“I think maybe a few of them have missed out because they were sick today but all in all pretty much everyone’s here,” she said.
“There’s a surprising number of younger children in Simpson now.
“The sponsorship from TOPS and the Simpson Lions Club has made it a very special day for the kids of Simpson.
“It’s great that the Caterpillar coffee van could come and Michele (Fratantaro, owner) from Little Bit of Sweet has provided the fairy floss.
“Timboon has helped out Simpson to run our little kids’ festival.”
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