Front: Lois Newnham, Rachel McKay, her grandson Harlan Jones and daughter Georgia McKay. Back: Mrs McKay’s father, Bob Willis, and son Mitchell McKay.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
Community members flocked to the lawn outside the Cobram Lowes BP recently to share a cuppa and cake for a good cause.
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Cobram BP’s Biggest Morning Tea drew a steady crowd of regular customers, couples and families from morning to afternoon on Tuesday, May 20, all in the name of raising money for Cancer Council Australia.
As usual, a centrepiece of the morning tea was the offering of homemade sausage rolls, baked by organiser Rachel McKay’s mother and father.
“This year, they made 35kg of sausage mince into sausage rolls,” Mrs McKay said.
Organised by Mrs McKay, who owns and operates the Cobram BP service station, the event raises funds through raffle ticket sales for Cancer Council Australia.
Many of the guests, Mrs McKay explained, were regular customers of hers.
“We want to get rid of cancer,” she said.
The annual event has been running for at least 14 years, after the idea first struck Mrs McKay to host a morning tea on the service station’s front lawn.
“And I said to my girl, who was working there, ‘Why don’t we have a big morning tea out on the front lawn?’ And she looked at me and said, ‘Are you for real?’ I said, ‘Yeah’,” Mrs McKay said.
“We picked a date, and then it evolved.”
Years later, the highlight event remains a family affair, with Mrs McKay joined by her parents, husband, daughter, son and grandson.
Meanwhile, the marquee was staffed by volunteers such as Shireen Eade, who served up a buffet of slices, biscuits and cakes baked by Mrs McKay’s family.
She said the most popular offering was, without a doubt, the sausage rolls.
The annual morning tea has become a fixture on the Cobram calendar, thanks to the hard work of Rachel McKay, her family and a dedicated team of volunteers.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
“Everyone likes a sausage roll,” she said.
“Every year, [Rachel McKay and her family] fund raise, and they keep doing a good job. They put up a good spread, you know, and there’s a lot of hard work.”
In previous years, the morning tea has raised over $15,000 when matched by Lowes Petroleum.
Mrs McKay confirmed funds raised at this year’s event would also be matched by Lowes Petroleum.
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