St Andrew’s verger Ian Dunn has done it again.
Three years after he told The News he was retiring from organising the church fairs held on Anniversary and Labour weekends, he went and did another one.
Teatime: the St Andrew’s ladies put on tea and home cooked delights with money raised going to local charities. Being served are from left Tracy Morgan, Leah Mawston, Rev Michelle Willis and Denise Forsyth (partially obscured). Behind the counter, clockwise from back, gala organiser Ian Dunn, Lauris Crook, Ruth Riddell, Jeanette Bryant, Heather Harvey, Ste-phen Riddell, Yvonne Johnston and Marilyn Cooper. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
And excitedly he revealed on Monday he is also going to run his own 80th birthday event in the church on March 9.
Top bill will be Cambridge’s Riverside Ukes who put on a two and a half hour show for this year’s fair which had 140 stalls and clear, if windy, skies.
Dunn also hopes to revive his bell ringing career provided the work on the Bell Tower’s belfry – where one of the four kauri pillars is being repaired – is completed in time.
Riverside Ukes performed for 2 ½ hours inside St Andrew’s Church dur-ing the gala finding the acoustics perfect for their special brand of music. From left, lead guitarist John Worth, Hilary Wilson-Hill, Chris Follett and Tony Hill. Photos: Mary Anne Gill
“I couldn’t give this up,” he says having just returned from catching up with stall holders at his 30th event.
Most galas make more than $6000 for the parish.
The St Andrew’s ladies were there with their home baking – Yvonne Johnston rattled off the names of who made the scones, cake, and the 95-year-old woman who made yoyo cookies, a favourite for decades from the Edmonds Cookbook.
They hoped to raise $1500-$2000 which will go to a charitable organisation working on women and children’s projects.
Americans Gene Sorkin, left, now of Auckland but originally from Ingle-wood, California and Alan Newman of San Diego went pokémon hunting while waiting for their wives – both called Anita. The couples stumbled onto the gala and stopped on their way through to Napier. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
Outside Americans Gene Sorkin and Alan Newman were sitting on the footpath verge hunting Pokémon.
“There don’t seem too many around here,” said Newman wearing the Make American Great Again black cap favoured by Elon Musk.
“I’m a big (Donald) Trump fan,” he said to the obvious disdain of his friend Gene Sorkin now living in Auckland but originally from Inglewood in southern California.
American friends for 55 years stopped off at the gala on their way through to Napier. From left Anita and Alan Newman from San Diego and Anita and Gene Sorkin, now of Auckland but originally from Inglewood, Califor-nia. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
They have known each other since they attended the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1968 – the days of flower power, protests against the Vietnam war, Woodstock and free love.
Their differing politics has not harmed a decades-old friendship.
Both married women called Anita. Sorkin’s wife was from the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco famous for its hippies although she says all she ever did was rip her jeans and sew floral decorations into them.
And with that they were going to pop into town, do some shopping and grab a bite to eat having counted themselves fortunate to have stumbled upon St Andrew’s legendary church fair.
St Andrews Gala, Anniversary Weekend 2025
Cambridge Cruisers Rock and Roll dance to Riverside Ukes. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
