Families fine-tuned their biscuit decorating and Lego building skills during the school holidays as part of a Uniting Wimmera program.

Community wellbeing worker Kara Johnson said the organisation tried to run different family-friendly activities during each school holiday period.

She said the coronavirus pandemic ruled out face-to-face activities, but families were still able to participate remotely.

“We always try to come up with activities that families can do together, but obviously the pandemic made things a bit tricky,” she said.

Children from across the Wimmera had two weeks to enter ‘bedazzled biscuits’ and ‘Lego makers’ competitions.

Miss Johnson said children from Warracknabeal, Jeparit, Horsham, Hopetoun, Speed, Minyip, Nhill, Toolondo, Goroke, Glenlee and Langkoop participated.

“Many families participated and we had 36 children submit 77 photos in the bedazzled biscuits competition and 44 children submitted 73 photos in the Lego makers competition,” she said.

“We were really pleased with the number of entries, as well as the variety – we had people from the age of three to 15 participating.”

Miss Johnson said each of the competitions had a winner chosen at random, with Malachi Jenn of Jeparit winning the Lego competition and Gabriella Smith, of Hopetoun, victorious in biscuit decorating. Both won board game packs.

Uniting Wimmera executive officer Josh Koenig had the important task of selecting winners in an ‘EO choice’ category.

He chose biscuits by Alexis and Luna Kahn of Horsham, commenting on the teamwork and creativity that went into their entry.

Mr Koenig chose Oscar McKinnon of Horsham in the Lego category, applauding ‘the dinosaur scene that stole the show’. The three winners collected passes to Toys mini golf.

Fellow organiser, integrated family services worker Tanya Henderson, said she hoped families enjoyed the opportunity to spend time creating together.

“The uptake we have seen with this has been fantastic and it was lovely to see the photos landing in our inbox as families sent in their entries,” she said.

“To ensure every family had the opportunity to take part in the competitions, Uniting offered biscuit decorating ingredient packs and Lego packs to families that might not have had access to the resources to do so.”

Miss Johnson said she and her co-workers would put on their thinking caps to think of new activities for the September holidays.

“We are always encouraging families to come up with ideas and provide us with feedback about what they would like to do,” she said.

She said people could email her at kara.johnson@vt.uniting.org or call her on 5362 4000 to provide feedback.

– Sarah Matthews

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