The hectic month of June is over for this year and the FHC Board of Directors is starting to plan for the Men’s National Veterans Championships being held at our grounds in October. To all the helpers that have volunteered their time over the last month, thank you for your time and effort. With out the members/parents pitching in to help the club could not achieve the reputation that is has as the best place to play hockey in Victoria.
I have been asked by some members why we have to give up our grounds and rooms to hold these events as they must cost us to hire other grounds and move our games. That’s correct, there is a cost involved in holding these events but the income received more than out weighs the costs to the club. In June we hosted 3 large events, the Lacrosse Down Under Cup, Men’s Country week and Junior Country week. The club received around $10,000 in ground hire fee’s for these 3 events, while our Canteen Manager managed to bank over $15,000. So for the small inconvenience we suffered, the club and its members are well rewarded. The money raised from holding these events are what keep our fees down, go towards the new training area, our new grounds, player training and keeping the club running. They are also more than helpful when we approach the State Government or the Council to help fund new grounds as we are not seen as just a Hockey Club, but as a Club that is willing to share it good fortune with other sports, schools etc. I hope that helps you all under stand why the Board of Directors supports these type of events and why we call for helpers on these occasions.
Which brings me to the next issue, the National Veterans Championship in October, anybody that has called into the club during 1 of the above mentioned events knows the amount of people we need to cater for and service. Even our largest home week-end with 8 teams playing comes no way near what we will have to contend with. For 13 days from September 28th to October 10th FHC will host 16 games a day or 640 players plus support staff at the grounds from 8am till 8pm. They will all want to be fed and watered, this is a huge task and the club is asking for your support to enable us to do this. At present we have some of the members that have taken 2 weeks off work to help out which is great, but what ever time you can give will be appreciated. A poster asking for help will go up shortly and I hope your name will be on it. At the present moment I have 69 teams entered for the Championships so it will be the largest Hockey event ever held in Victoria and you can be part of it and support your Club.
