DESPITE the recession, this year’s Thorndon Fair raised just under $60,000 for the local school.
The fair is the school’s biggest fundraising event and attracted more than 25,000 people.
It topped last year’s amount by almost $10,000, with the proceeds going towards computer equipment and extra staff.
The result was a surprise for Thorndon School principal Bill Sutton: “The economic downturn clearly didn’t affect us.”
The school raises funds from stall hire and gold coin donation and by operating their own stalls.
Mr Sutton says the fine weather helped, and the school’s stalls did extremely well, with the senior students’ strawberries and cream stall selling out.