An English assignment has turned into a passion for twelve-year-old Rebekah Knowling making her Parkes’s youngest news reporter.

Last week she published the eighth issue of HS News, a newsletter she writes every two weeks for the home school community in Parkes.

“People have started asking me for the newsletter,” said Rebekah, who has also learned to use Publisher to get her newsletter print ready. “I like seeing other kids read it, it makes me happy.”

Rebekah said she tried to cover different topics that would interest kids. “I like to write about stuff kids will like and that will make them smile.”

She also includes upcoming events, and is currently running a competition to design a logo for the home school group. She has roped in her talented brother Samuel to do a cartoon strip in every issue.

“It is a struggle sometimes to think of what to put in the newsletter. That is why I’ve decided to create a special email address and ask my readers to contribute to the paper or send me items they would like to see in the paper.”

Mum and teacher, Leah Knowling said Rebekah was not very fond of English and writing, so she decided to give her the assignment of compiling a newsletter. “It just took off, and now she is really into it, and her spelling and writing have improved in leaps and bounds.”

Rebekah, who has set her sights on becoming and anime animator one day, now even considers journalism as an alternative. “I try to do a professional job although I am still a kid.”

With some valuable input from mum’s journalism experience, Rebekah’s HS News is surely looking good! “I don’t intend to give up on this very soon!”

The NSW Returned Services League (RSL) of Australia announced that ceremonies for Anzac Day in the Parkes Shire would be able to go ahead this year.

Local Parkes RSL Sub-Branch Secretary Paul Thomas said this was a great result and example of how RSL NSW works with state and federal governments to improve outcomes for veterans and their families.

The Parkes Sub-Branch confirmed the special guest of honour would be Air Vice Marshall (Rtd) Leigh Gordon OAM, AM. Leigh is a former local who completed his schooling at Parkes High School. He commenced an engineering degree at the Goo-bang Shire Council before joining the Royal Australian Air Force. Leigh will also visit the Parkes High School to address students.

Highlights of his career include Head of Aerospace Systems Division in the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) in August, 2013 and Head of the Joint Strike Fighter Project delivering the fifth generation F-35A Lightning II to the RAAF.

Leigh was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) this year for his distinguished service in responsible positions in acquisition and sustainment of aerospace systems for the Australian Defence Force, following his appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2015.

This year’s Anzac Day is significant with the 100th anniversary of the Royal Australian Air Force and the contribution of Parkes with personnel including Air Marshall Leslie Bruce Fisher, who was the Chief of the RAAF for four years. Both Leigh Gordon and Osborne rose to the rank of Air Vice Marshall. Parkes also produced Flight Officer Rawdon Middleton, a Victoria Cross recipient, and Pilot Officer Colin Francis Hendry, a Distinguished Flying Cross awardee.

The Programme of Events for the Anzac Day celebration will include all the traditional items, as well as the announcement of the winners of the Anzac Biscuit Cooking competition.

It is amazing how much educational value there is in the building of a solar light as a group of home schoolers discovered in Parkes this week.

The local home school community joined the SolarBuddy project on Wednesday putting together 25 solar lights for kids in energy poor countries.

Leah Knowling, who organised the structured activity for the group’s regular Wednesday get together at Lions Park, said when the Home Education Association called for participants in the project, she liked the idea of getting the Parkes group involved.

On Wednesday children from aged 7 to 15 sat down to assemble the lights that will possibly be send to Cambodia. To finish off the project, each participant wrote a letter to the child who will be using the solar light.

Leah said SolarBuddy would send them a video showing the kids when they open up their lights for the first time, and they would be getting return letters as well.

“It was fun doing it,” said Ayrton Fowler (14). “We read up about the Afar people in Ethiopia this morning. As they are nomads, these lights would be very useful to them.”

Carmel Kelly (11) said the lights would be good for kids who wanted to study at night. “I enjoyed being able to help them, and I learned about technology.”

Leah said the activity was not only a great STEM exercise, but included some history, geography and English, while the kids also learned about the importance of kindness. “It is a fantastic exercise and I would encourage all schools to get involved.”

SolarBuddy is an Australian charity with a big dream to gift six million solar lights to children living in energy poverty by 2030, to help them to study after dusk and improve their education outcomes.

The ban by Facebook last Thursday of all Australian news content, meant The Parkes Phoenix news stories were cut off from a large percentage of our readership.

Fortunately for us the ban did not last too long and our page was restored late Tuesday afternoon.

While we are back to business as usual for the time being, we would like to remind you that we are accessible on various other media sources like Instagram and email, and of course our website.

So if you want to make sure you can always find our stories online keep the following in mind, and as a backup, we would recommend you sign up for our email service to receive the paper in your inbox every Friday morning.

Simply go to our website (www.parkesphoenix.com.au) and scroll to the bottom of the page to subscribe. You can also follow us on Instragram (theparkesphoenix).

You can always pick up a copy of the paper every Friday around town at all the supermarkets and various other businesses.

The Parkes Phoenix has a new face in our advertising sales position. We welcomed Zoe Smith to our camp last week and we would like to introduce her to our readers today.

Where did you grow up? I grew up in the bush – in the tiny town of Wilton, near Picton, about 1.5 hours south of Sydney.

What did you do before joining the Parkes Phoenix? I was building my house and working on my farm, until I broke my wrist and ruptured a thumb tendon! Now I’m on light duties, which is a nice change really.

What do you enjoy about your job? I love meeting people, and connecting with the community. I’ve only been in the Central West for 2.5 years, so getting to know everyone is important to me.

What is your favourite thing to do when you have free time? I love a long ride on my motorbike in summer, gardening and cooking in winter.

What is on your bucket list? I would love to travel the world more, but at the moment I would just be quite happy with a quick trip to the coast!

What makes you laugh the most? My son’s sense of humour – he cracks me up – always has.

If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be? A day spa in Thailand with my kids would be great. We all need a beach and a massage right now.

Do you have a message for the Parkes Phoenix readers? Please call me if you have any questions about advertising in the Phoenix. I’m friendly, I love my job and I’m keen to help. We don’t work on commission – so I’m not pushy!

Volunteers who took part in a previous Clean Up Australia Day in Parkes.

Parkes Shire residents are invited to join the nation-wide effort to help conserve the environment as part of this year’s Clean Up Australia Day on Sunday, 7th March.

Community members are encouraged to gather friends, family and colleagues to join Council staff in helping to clean up, fix up and conserve our local parks, gardens and reserves.

Over 18.3 million Australians have donated their time as part of Clean Up Australia activities over the last 30 years. A total of 36 million hours of volunteer time has been donated to Clean Up activities to benefit our environment and 380,000 ute loads of rubbish have been removed as part of Clean Up Australia activities.

Mayor of Parkes Shire, Cr Ken Keith OAM said: “Clean Up Australia Day is not only good for our native flora and fauna, it is also a great community event and a way for everyone to show pride in our region.

“By doing our bit to remove and reduce rubbish accumulating in our local parks, roadsides, bushland and waterways, we can ensure that our natural assets will be there to enjoy well into the future.”

Registrations will take place from 8am on Sunday, 7th March at Lions Park. Clean up areas will be allocated to groups at this time, or individuals combined into Clean Up teams. Please bring gloves, a hat, sturdy shoes and don’t forget your water bottle and sunscreen.

This event will adhere to the current NSW Health Restrictions in place at the time of the event. There will be a number of measures in place to ensure the health and safety of the volunteers and the broader community. If you are feeling unwell, please get tested and stay home. For more information about the latest restrictions, please visit www.health.nsw.gov.au.