ACCA’s 50th Anniversary dinner held on Friday the 1 November 2024, was a resounding success highlighted by the attendance of our Joint Patrons Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of NSW and Mr Dennis Wilson. MC Nicole He, welcomed the guests and prepared them for the grand entrance by the Official Party to the music of a Royal Fanfare signalling something special was about to take place.
To help celebrate this milestone occasion we were honoured to have not only our Joint Patrons Her Excellency the Governor and Mr Wilson in attendance but a cross section of Federal and State Members of Parliament, Local Government Councillors, past and present ACCA Presidents and office bearers, ACCA management and staff.
During the evening we heard congratulatory speeches from ACCA’s President Christine Mok, the Guest of Honour and joint patron Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Federal Politicians Dr Andrew Charlton MP representing the Prime Minister, The Hon David Coleman MP representing the Leader of the Opposition and The Hon Matt Thistlethwaite MP delivering his speech in Mandarin! State Politicians Ms Julia Finn representing the Premier, Mr Mark Coure representing the Leader of the NSW Opposition.
All speeches made mention of ACCA’s humble beginnings in 1974 as a community service started by a group of volunteers to help newly arrived Chinese migrants, to becoming a successful Aged Care provider with over 350 staff serving more than 1,000 clients per week in services such as home care packages, respite care centres, meals services, a Chinese language school and disability services (NDIS).
Event Chair and Vice President Shirley Chan presented Her Excellency with a lovely bouquet of flowers as a token of our appreciation as joint patron and for attending our milestone event. Her Excellency and Mr Wilson then joined the Directors to cut the three-layered anniversary cake.
The Governor then mingled with our guests and care workers. All in attendance particularly appreciated the Governors presence and the meaningful interactions. All while the food and wine served was plentiful and delicious with well known singers Daniel Li and Ken Ng entertaining the crowd with renditions of Chinese and Australian favorites which had the crowd dancing in the aisles.
The evening was a fitting celebration of half a century of dedication, a testament to ACCA’s incredible journey to provide quality Aged, Disability and Community care services. It was particularly pleasing the number of accolades our Patrons, VIP’s and guests provided to staff, management and event organisers.
The Editorial Team
5th November 2024