By STEVE GRAY
STUDENTS did the catering, modelled in the fashion parade, ran the raffles, and organised sponsorship for a Melbourne Cup Day luncheon for 140 guests at Warwick TAFE’s Horizons Restaurant on Tuesday.
The only people disappointed would have been those on the waiting list who couldn’t join in. The whole sell-out affair benefitted Guide Dogs Queensland.
Hospitality students attending both the TAFE and Year 12 at Assumption College catered for the lunch and strode the catwalk in clothing from Crossroads and Skehan’s Menswear. The luncheon, now an annual event, gives Event, Hospitality and Catering students real-world experience.
More junior hospitality students acted as wait staff and ran the bar. With the menu including smoked salmon, honey glazed ham, pavlova, pecan pie and much more, guests’ appetites, if not their consciences, were well pleased Aileen McGregor-Lowndes of Guide Dogs Queensland was full of praise.
“Doesn’t it look fantastic, what they’ve done,” she said as students loaded tables with food and decorated the large dining room at the TAFE college.
She visited weeks ago to brief them on Guide Dogs Queensland and said she was impressed at how they’d delved into the organisation.
Ms McGregor-Lowndes came with special guest Ivy, a Guide Dogs trainee Labrador. Also present was local identity Frank Taylor who also attended Warwick TAFE’s Melbourne Cup luncheon with his guide dog. All proceeds from the event went to Guide Dogs Queensland.
Ella Tregurtha was among the students modelling fashions in the field. She intends taking a gap year to travel when her studies are finished.
Codie Bracken, who works at a local coffee outlet, said they were just putting on the finishing touches before guests arrived. Michael Constable said he would study audio production and then do a diploma in events management.
“That’ll be a follow-on from this course,” he said.
n Large print 2014 calendars from Guide Dogs Queensland are now available in Warwick. The calendars are for sale at Paul Morrissey Optometrist in Grafton Street and at Condamine Medical Centre on Wood Street.
