Feb 2001 Volume 82 Number 2 "serving the protectors"
Record Crowds Attend Carols at the Academy
By John Ballantyne

A record crowd of more than 5,000 people flocked to the Carols at the Academy, held at Fort Largs on the night of December 15.

This annual event - unique to SA - has grown spectacularly since its modest beginnings.

The tradition started only a decade ago when the police academy’s Sgt Mark Ager organized some festivities, mainly for police cadets who could not get home for Christmas.

In its early years, local residents were invited to join in. But from then onwards the event has snowballed as it has attracted larger and larger crowds.

December’s attendance - estimated to be more than 5,000 - was over double the previous year’s crowd.

Sgt Ager - still at Fort Largs, running the Constable Development Programme – says, with some astonishment, that in the early days he “never expected” such a result.

Last December’s Carols at the Academy was a three-and-a-half hour, fun-filled family event, with carol-singing and live entertainment, topped off with a spectacular sky show and the arrival of Santa Claus.

Hosted by Channel 7 personality, Cherylee Harris, the programme featured the internationally-acclaimed Band of the SA Police (fresh from its success at the Millennium Edinburgh Military Tattoo), as well as the Vietnamese Christian Community Choir, whose ethnic community recently celebrated its 25 years in Australia.

Between carols, “Blues Brothers”, “Sinatra” and “Elvis” impersonators entertained the crowds.

Performing for the younger members of the audience were the Giggle Pots, the Tea Tree Gully Redbacks Youth Band, as well as animated characters, Bluey Dog, Deputy Koala, Safety Hound, Rail Bug and the Police Credit Union Pandas.

There were also rides, amusements and static displays.

After a long evening of non-stop singing and entertainment, just as the children’s energy was beginning to flag, the lights suddenly went out. A loud explosion at the back of the oval made the audience wheel round.

There on a rooftop, silhouetted against an illuminated, billowing cloud of smoke was the familiar outline of the star of the evening himself – Santa Claus.

Owing to a navigational glitch, his sleigh had touched down on the roof of Fort Largs’s old administration building!

But all was not lost. Thousands of excited children waved and called to him, and seconds later he magically reappeared on the stage in a puff of smoke.

As Santa Claus greeted the young Christmas revellers, hundreds of fireworks soared into the air, illuminating the night sky over Fort Largs.

Carols at the Academy was organized by SAPOL’s Public Affairs Section, and was supported by PASA, the Police Credit Union, the SA Police Academy, the Port Adelaide Enfield Council, and numerous private sponsors.

Catering was organized by the Variety Club of SA, with all the money raised going to the Children’s Cancer Unit at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

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