The Citizen of the Year for the Richmond Valley Council is Dot Robson who died on 15 January 2011.  It’s the first time the Richmond Valley Council has ever handed out a posthumous citizen of the year award.

Dot was recognized for a vast body of charity work and was a central member of the Beef Week committee where she was the event coordinator for the craft exhibition.

Stuart George, President of Beef Week described Dot as one of the Richmond Valley’s most treasured residents, a special lady who devoted her life to helping others and the community wherever she could.

Even on the day she suffered her massive stroke, Dot was busy organising items for an up and coming Windara garage sale.

Dot’s pride and joy was her craft show that she was the coordinator of and was very well respected throughout the craft community and this was shown by the craft exhibitor numbers being full each year.

Stuart says she has left big shoes to fill and the craft show will continue on as normal but Dot will be sorely missed especially her organisation skills and sense of humor.

Country Energy Casino Beef Week’s 28^th Festival has wrapped up and all organizers are declaring it a great success.

Not even rain on Friday or Saturday morning could deter the thousands of people who packed into the Casino Town Centre for the Beef Industry Breakfast and the Beef Week Street Carnival. 

 “The support from the community was overwhelming.” Beef Week President Stuart George said.  “Casino’s community spirit always shines through at Beef Week.”

The only downside of the 2010 festival was the cancellation of the Beef Week Rodeo on Saturday night.  Mr George said “Rodeo organizers faced, with what appeared to be set-in rain on Saturday morning and potentially hefty freight costs had to make a decision about the rodeo before stock contractors set out for Casino.  It was unfortunate that the rodeo did not go ahead but nobody could have known the weather was going to clear like it did.” He said.

Mr George admitted that Beef Week Committee members were feeling bleak at the heavy skies blanketing Casino on Saturday morning when it seemed the steady rain would drench the Street Carnival.  “We were all feeling pretty disheartened about 5.30 Saturday morning”, he said. 

“But surprisingly we still had good crowds even when it was raining.  The crowd really started to grow when the rain cleared on Saturday morning 11.00.  I’m sure the rain would have deterred some people from traveling to Casino but we can’t control the weather and in the end we were very happy with how the day turned out.”

Meanwhile the weather could not have been better for the Beef Week Family Fun Day at the Casino Village RV Resort on Sunday.  Up to 3000 people are estimated to have turned out in the bright late autumn sunshine to meet popular television vet Dr Harry Cooper, hear rising country music star Amber Lawrence in concert and browse the market stalls.

“Country Energy’s Platinum Sponsorship will continue into the 2011 Casino Beef Week Festival and a number of new first time sponsor have already said how impressed they were with the Festival and are very very keen to increase their sponsorship next year”, Mr. George said.  “The future of beef week is looking very strong.”

The last twelve months have been again a busy one for us at the Beef Week office. During this period we have welcomed to the team Donna Yager as the Festival’s Co-Ordinator and Cherie Holdsworth as Administration Co-Ordinator. These appointments have seen the festival organisation build on the solid foundations that have been set in place over the past years and I thank them both for their valuable and time and effort.

On behalf of the Beef Week Festival Board and Committee members I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to all sponsors, coordinators, passionate volunteers and Festival attendees – each of you contribute to making the Festival a success each year.

Amy Morton was crowned Miss Casino Beef Week for 2010 at the Country Energy Casino Beef Week 2010 glittering opening dinner on Saturday

The Casino Beef Week Queen 2010, Amy Morton surely knows a thing or two about beef.

She is a qualified butcher at the Northern Co operative Meat Company, working as the specification co-ordinator for one of the operators in the boning room, and is  also training the supervisor in charge of apprentices.

Amy has her sights set high and is studying the Certificate IV course in leadership in meat processing, and will follow this through to a diploma. Her goal is to move into management in the meat industry.

If her past success is anything to go by she looks set to achieve her goal. Amy won apprentice of the year in 2008 and won a scholarship to attend the recent IFFA world meat trade fair in Frankfurt.   

Amy entered the contest to represent the Angus beef breed, believing Angus to be one of the most popular breeds.

Speaking from her butcher's perspective, Amy said Angus offers a variety of meats and can meet a good range of markets.

The girl who grew up on a farm at Larnook will make an excellent representative of Casino Beef Week and the Beef industry.

Highlights of Beef Week include:

Monday, judging of of window display prizes to those Casino businesses that displayed the ‘Wild Wild West’ theme.

Tomorrow night there is the Fashion Parade, then the race day and on Friday morning, the Butchers’ Breakfast.
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At the presentation of Richmond Valley's Signature Event award are council general manager Brian Wilkinson, mayor col Sullivan, Beef Week president Stuart George, and council's tourism officer Rod Caldicott.

As the signature event the festival will receive $28,000 annually from council. Beef Week has held the status of Signature Event for the last two years and as a result of further application to Council, and the achievement of outcomes of strategic planning and vision for the event, the Signature Event status has been extended for the next three years.

Beef Week president Stuart George said he is 'very, very happy with the outcome."

"We are very proud of what we have achieved in the last two years to ensure Beef Week has a future and now its time to build on this hard work," he said.

"The Signature Event Status assists us in many ways, not just financial.  It gives additional credibility when speaking to potential sponsors and supporters knowing that we are the feature community event for the Richmond Valley with broad support.”