Local State Member, Melanie Gibbons made a request to the NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell, for financial assistance and was able to secure a $5000 grant from the NSW Premier’s Discretionary Fund. She presented the cheque to Southside Paddlers on Saturday at our Christmas Races. Melanie was assisted by Sutherland Shire Mayor Kent Johns. 
The committee has made arrangements to meet with the Mayor to discuss how best we can best work with the council to get better and more storage for our craft and to get access to some better facilities for our current and future members. We appreciate the support of our club from the State Government and Sutherland Council. Thank you.
That was not the only highlight on our Club Christmas Social Day. The inaugural Woronora K4 Challenge was raced between Sutherland Shire Canoe Club and ourselves. Thank you to Steve Dawson, who has a foot in each club, for making the fine trophy, which is now in the care of Southside, as first up winners in 2012. We look forward to this becoming a great tradition between the 2 clubs and perhaps others will join in too and it will become like the Henley on Thames Regatta!
Everyone also took part in the 4k handicap (Note :next time don’t let the paddlers handicap themselves……!) 2k and 200 sprints. See the results link ( thank you Glenn) The kettle was on after for refreshments and then on to the Lemon Squeezy Cafe for our club social and the prize giving.
Thank you to the people who work so hard to make these events happen. Rod for organising the social at Lemon Squeezy and providing the morning tea, Luke for running the races, Kaye ad Glenn for time keeping, Michael for captaining the safety boat and everyone else for competing and cheering. Thank you to Santa for making an appearance too! The king tide added a new dimension. There are lots of photos on the links below and a fun video of our water babes doing their synchronised ballet. 
