Sri Lanka Society of Queensland (SLSQ) celebrates members and friends get together
Sri Lanka Society of Queensland (SLSQ) was planning its signature event, the Sri Lanka New Year function in the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, the worldwide pandemic was declared in March. The Australian government cancelled all public gatherings and therefore we had to cancel our celebrations too.
When restrictions were easing in Queensland, the committee decided to organize a fellowship get together for its members and friends who always support the Society.
As a result of this idea, on Saturday 14th November we celebrated a get together at Jindalee Bowls Club. The event was organized as per COVID regulations set by Premier with a restricted number of guests.
The MC for the event was Laurensz Manricks, who has been a member of the Society for many years. He kept the guests relaxed and entertained us with his lighthearted compering and humorous jokes. The music was provided by Charith Matino who kept the guests toes tapping. The scrumptious lunch was provided by Thilani catering.
The highlighted of the gathering was to felicitate Mr Anton Swan, the Honorary Consul for Sri Lanka in Queensland who has been appointed as the Dean of the Consular Corps for Queensland 2020. Anton is a past President and life member of SLSQ. Laurensz entertained the guests with many stories when both had been in the committee as the President and the Secretary. Anton said as the Honorary Consul, he could recall there were many memorable highlights and had always enjoyed serving the Sri Lankan community in Queensland.
Our Society has always promoted Brisbane authors and have held book launch events in the past. At the luncheon we promoted Dr Nimal Sedera’s latest publication which is his biography ‘Avaragirada Chamathkaraya’. Dr Sedera handed a copy of his book to Mr Anton Swan and we managed to sell few copies of the book.
We organized two trivia quizzes and the guests were very eager to participate and guess the answers correct. The winners were presented with a prize. We also held a raffle draw with some lovely prizes. We are very grateful for the guests for purchasing these tickets to support our society.
All in all, it was a relaxed and enjoyable event for all the guests.
Namal Wijeratne – President SLSQ
