Friday marked a new era for two of Wollongong’s iconic markets
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The Rotary Club of Corrimal had their first Twilight Market at Flagstaff Hill after winning the right to operate the event for the 2016/17 season.
The small profit made from the monthly meet will go towards the club’s community projects.
Club youth director Sue Clark co-wrote the application and said their members saw it as an opportunity to provide something for the community as well as make a “significant” sum of money to contribute back into the community.
Ms Clark said Rotary is involved in many projects in the local community and abroad such as buying books for underprivileged Illawarra children, helping drought and flood stricken farmers and helping to rebuild areas like Nepal after disaster.
Meantime, Kirrily Sinclair took over the operation of the Friday produce markets in the Crown Street Mall, now called Friday Forage.
“We were so impressed by how helpful the stallholders were in making this transition smooth,” Ms Sinclair said.
“When we applied for the market, one of the things that really appealed to us was that councils criteria fitted the Foragers ethos of fresh, local, organic and handmade products.”
In light of recent debate from the community over whether Wollongong City Council should have put the Friday markets to a “quotation process”, similar to a tender, she said the community should remember Foragers is a local start-up business.
“We are now a team of three full-time local mums … and we are all passionate about the local area and we will continue to showcase the best Wollongong has to offer,” she said.
“We have worked extremely hard in the past three years, I started with one market and have expanded to three which is a great achievement, one that I’m proud of.
“For anyone to have their small business grow it should be seen as a positive thing.”