BISHOPDALE SCHOOL GALA RUNS OUT OF $1 COINS BY 10.17AM, PTA TREASURER 'TAKING A MOMENT' IN THE STAFF CARPARK
The sausage sizzle still had snags. The lucky dip still had prizes. Nobody had change.
A Bishopdale primary school gala descended into polite middle-class panic on Saturday morning when organisers ran out of $1 coins seventeen minutes after the gates opened. An estimated 200 parents were left holding $5 notes and tense expressions.
The float had been $300 in gold coins, according to PTA treasurer Helen Brockie. By 10.17am it was a single $2 and a button. "We thought it'd last until the cake stall opened," Brockie told The Daily Yarn from a fold-out chair near the recycling bins. "I'd budgeted for the bouncy castle queue. Not the bouncy castle queue plus the chocolate wheel plus Geoff's coin-toss game."
Parent Marissa Cleaver, 41, said she'd queued eleven minutes for a sausage only to be told the EFTPOS machine was "a goodwill arrangement". "I had a fifty. They looked at me like I'd brought a cheque. My son is crying near the second-hand book stall and I cannot fix it without coins."
A runner was dispatched to the Bishopdale Mall ANZ but returned empty-handed. The branch advised it was "not really a coin branch". A second runner came back with $40 in twenties, which helped no one.
Deputy principal Roger Linwood said the school would "review float procedures for next year" and confirmed the chocolate wheel had been converted to an honesty system. Three children have already won the meat tray twice.
As of 1pm the gala was still running, the sausages were down to onions, and Helen Brockie had not returned from the carpark. Geoff was running the coin toss on IOUs.
The float had been $300 in gold coins, according to PTA treasurer Helen Brockie. By 10.17am it was a single $2 and a button. "We thought it'd last until the cake stall opened," Brockie told The Daily Yarn from a fold-out chair near the recycling bins. "I'd budgeted for the bouncy castle queue. Not the bouncy castle queue plus the chocolate wheel plus Geoff's coin-toss game."
Parent Marissa Cleaver, 41, said she'd queued eleven minutes for a sausage only to be told the EFTPOS machine was "a goodwill arrangement". "I had a fifty. They looked at me like I'd brought a cheque. My son is crying near the second-hand book stall and I cannot fix it without coins."
A runner was dispatched to the Bishopdale Mall ANZ but returned empty-handed. The branch advised it was "not really a coin branch". A second runner came back with $40 in twenties, which helped no one.
Deputy principal Roger Linwood said the school would "review float procedures for next year" and confirmed the chocolate wheel had been converted to an honesty system. Three children have already won the meat tray twice.
As of 1pm the gala was still running, the sausages were down to onions, and Helen Brockie had not returned from the carpark. Geoff was running the coin toss on IOUs.