The Myall Park Croquet Club’s Biggest Morning Tea drew 30 people to its home base on Monday 4 May and raised more than $1200 for cancer and medical research. It was the 16th year the club has staged the local fundraiser.

Members and guests came from other clubs in town as the day combined raffles, tea and a familiar club gathering. Ella Sansom said local businesses had once again provided hundreds of dollars’ worth of prizes, which were raffled off in the lead-up to the event to help push this year’s total past $1200.

The money will go to the Hunter Medical Research Institute for the fifth year, extending a run of support that has become part of the club’s calendar. Over the past six years, Myall Park Croquet Club has raised a total of $5600 for HMRI, a result built year after year by a small volunteer team that has kept the event going for 16 years.

That team includes Sharon Barwick, Fran Henderson and Kay Webb, who have been on board for 16 years, along with Marlene Feltis, who joined more recently. Their work has tied the fundraiser to local support in a practical way: businesses donate the prizes, guests buy the tickets, and the money is sent on to research rather than staying at the club.

Sansom said the club’s aim was to keep helping people through the research funded by HMRI, which she described as work that supports people with a wide range of medical issues. The institute has recently pointed to field studies using regular at-home nasal swabs and marked the 30-year milestone of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, but for the croquet club the connection is simpler and closer to home — a small annual event that keeps producing real money for a bigger cause.

With another Biggest Morning Tea completed, the club has shown the fundraiser still has local traction. The question now is not whether the event will continue, but whether next year’s effort can build on a total that has already become significant for a volunteer-run club.