Easter is upon us once again and there are lots of egg-cellent events and offers on this year. From car checks to fish frying there’s something to please everyone this Easter, cracking! Easter is a holiday best spent enjoying quality time with your family and many people will travel long distances over the weekend to visit them. It’s important to
make sure your car is in tip top condition before heading out on a long journey this Easter.

Medlyn’s Auto Services on Route 90, Clarinda Street, specialise in car servicing for all makes and models including
commercial fleet vehicles. Their fully qualified log book servicing ensures your car is in safe hands and as a Repco Authorised Car Service centre Medlyn’s have a commitment to ensuring only the very best in car servicing and automotive care.

If you’re short on supplies this Easter, A.G. Souter is the place to go! They have a large selection of batteries including deep cycle for your camping or caravanning needs in stock. Souter’s also offer free battery testing for all your batteries. In store currently are a range of firearms, ammunition and hunting supplies, perfect for Easter hunting weekends including reloading powders and projectiles, knives and spotlights as well as a selection of archery equipment. Special requirements? Souter’s are happy to order in any needs you have to help you wherever they can. Souter’s also offer car services, rego inspections and mechanical repairs including car air conditioning and electrical wiring. Call into the store at 8 Bogan Street, Parkes or call 6862 1733 to take advantage of their 20% discounted
Regular Car Services until the end of April!

Fish has traditionally been eaten at Easter by Christians since around the 2nd century. Christians abstained from eating meat on a Friday as a reminder of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, which is commemorated by people of this faith every year. Whether you intend to follow this tradition or if you just love all things that hail from the deep, Silver Bream Café will be stocked full of delicious seafood in the run up to Easter and beyond. Open from 6am Monday to Friday for those of us who need an early coffee kick, Silver Bream will be offering up seafood salads made to order, guaranteeing the freshest taste. The café has recently been taken over by new manager, Nathan, who has over 14 years’ experience as a professional chef. “We can cook fish battered, grilled or crumbed and will have various other seafood on offer including prawns, calamari and crab claws” he said. Not forgetting their icy cold milkshakes, perfect for a hot day! Come in and see the friendly team at Silver Bream at 315 Clarinda Street this Easter.

Local businesswoman and owner of La Bella Medispa, Rebecca Miller is a finalist in the Central West Orana Business
Awards to be announced on 6th May this year. Over a 21 year career as a beauty therapist, Rebecca’s passion for the skin industry and her drive to help empower women in business has given her a lot to smile about; “I work really hard at being a good leader and love sharing my knowledge with my staff and other women,” said Rebecca, who also won the Business Leader category of the Parkes Chamber of Commerce in October last year. “I could not have done
it without my magnificent team.”

Rebecca’s hard work was again rewarded when the La Bella team clinched the Dermaviduals Australian Clinic of the Year recently, beating 140 salons across the country. “The girls at La Bella Medispa go more than the extra mile with their skin analysis and full skin assessment consultations and treatment plans and for that we have been rewarded with this amazing prize,” Rebecca wrote in her blog on the business’ website.

Winning the Orana Business Award would boost Rebecca’s passion to not only continue her studies, but also be the best leader she could be. “My aim is that every client feels like the most important person in the world by giving her the best service.” Rebecca also plans to open salons in more locations, as well as expanding the Parkes one. She already has another salon in Orange with a total staff complement of 12 between the two.

Winners from each category in the Central West Orana Business Awards will proceed as finalists to the NSW Business Chamber State Awards. Rebecca is one of four finalists from Parkes. The Central West Orana Business Awards celebrate and recognize business excellence in the region.

By Maggi Barnard

Members of the Summer Reading Club of the Parkes Shire Library have had their noses stuck in books over the past two months. Reading Club members, mostly younger than 12 years, have read a total of 544 books and each received a certificate and goodie bag last Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the end of the Summer Reading Club with a cake decorated as a book.

The Library has held a reading club over the summer for a number of years. Inspired by work done with Macquarie University on best practice for learning and literacy development, members were asked to recreate a story they enjoyed inside a glass or plastic container. “The goal was to encourage borrowing, support reading as well as understanding, and comprehension of what was being read,” said Sandie Ward, Summer Reading Club President.

Each ‘story inside the glass’ went on display in a Library exhibition. To give members some inspiration, library staff recreated popular stories like The Girl and the Bicycle, Twinkle Twinkle, The Rainbow Fish and The Gingerbread Man inside a carafe, a fish bowl and a jam jar. At the event on Tuesday, some of the members explained what their “story inside the glass” was about, there were very creative representations of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Superman, Silky the cat and The 13-Storey Treehouse.

By Maggi Barnard

Friday morning began slightly differently for students at Parkes Pubic School when 14 rally cars roared by. This is the first time in its 12 years of existence that the Just4Kids children’s charity from Queensland has ventured in NSW on their annual motor trail fundraising event. The charity, which supports disabled and disadvantaged children,
stopped at Parkes Public to hand over a cheque donation for the school’s sensory gym, as well as three large food hampers for the special unit.

The volunteers played cricket with the students after they were treated to a breakfast prepared by the P & C. “Breakfast was wonderful,” said Kerin Hannan, Secretary of Just4Kids; “The rally has included volunteers from all over Australia and we’ve been stopping along the way to make donations.” This year’s 3000km Surf to Snow
route started off at Movieworld on the Gold Coast and finished at Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains. Director of Just4Kids, Mark Louez, said entries for next year’s Cape York Safari are already open for anyone interested in doing something different for a holiday. For more information go to www.just4kidsmotortrail.com.au.

On the 9th April the Men of League Foundations and Ronald McDonald House Orange (RMHO) Sportsman’s dinner will be held in Orange. Since opening last April, RMHO has had 77 families stay, including 10 families from Parkes. The sportsman’s dinner promises to be a fabulous evening where guests can mingle with Bob McCarthy, former international rugby league icon, Mike Cleary a dual code international, John Peard and Stuart Raper a former NRL Player.

RMHO is the first house to support families that are affected by child and adolescent mental health. Ronald McDonald House Orange is a ‘home away from home’ for many families of a child with a serious illness, providing a safe and comfortable environment where the whole family can stay together for the duration of their child’s treatment. With your support, the house will continue to be a place where families can be together and have a soft place to land when they need it most during a traumatic time in their lives. If you would like to attend the dinner at the Orange Ex-Services Club on 9th April at 7pm and rub shoulders with rugby elite, please call 6362 2666. Tickets are $75pp and include dinner and entertainment.

Keeping teenage girls in school in developing countries was one of the big projects highlighted by Quota International of Parkes at its celebration of International Women’s Day on Tuesday. Approximately 150 women from Parkes and district attended a sparkling high tea at the Parkes Golf Club for the annual event which celebrates women’s achievements and highlights Quota’s projects.

Pam Nankivell, Publicity Officer of Quota International of Parkes, said Tuesday’s focus was on the Days for Girls project. “The aim is to help girls gain access to quality sustainable feminine hygiene by providing them with re-usable sanitary kits. The kits are made by people all over the world and according to the Days for Girls website,
more than 200,000 girls in 100 nations have been reached so far” she said; “This means girls can stay in school instead of missing up to two months of education and opportunity every year.”

In Uganda and Kenya absence rates have dropped from 36% to 8% and 25% to 3% respectively after the distribution of Days for Girls kits. Pam said the Parkes chapter had been involved with the project for the past year by raising funds, as well as making some of the kits.

The other focus area of Quota International is the ongoing project of providing sound field systems to classrooms. The Parkes Public School already has three classrooms equipped with a system. “This means everyone can hear the teacher and the classroom is quieter,” said Pam; “Our endeavour is to put a system in all classrooms.” Cheques were also presented to the Domestic Violence Committee and Palliative Care at Tuesday’s event via the Parkes Quota Club, which has been in existence since 1957.

Two Parkes cyclists are toughening up to take part once again in one of the most exciting and rewarding charity bicycle rides in New South Wales. Rodney Coleman and Tina Jones are two of the 48 determined entrants for the Mill2Mill ride beginning in Gunnedah on Monday and ending in Manildra on Thursday, 577km later.

The duo first took part in the biennial event in 2014, “I enjoyed it, although it was really tough,” said Rodney, an employee at the Manildra Flour Mills, “I’m really looking forward to catching up with the people who took part last time and going to schools along the way and talking to the kids.” Tina, an employee of Pacific National, is equally excited for the challenge.

The ride is an initiative of the Manildra Group and MSM Milling to raise money for charities that support regional communities, small rural schools and community groups. The main aim is to raise more than $100,000 to be split between beyondblue and small schools the ride will pass along the route, as well as local Manildra community groups whose members volunteer their time to work as support crew during the ride. According to Genya Miller, Communications Manager for MSM Milling, this year’s ride concentrates on supporting beyondblue to help battle increasing levels of depression and anxiety in regional communities and among farmers.

The 2016 ride is the fourth Mill2Mill and will pass through many small regional communities, including Mullaley, Tambar Springs, Coonabarabran, Gilgandra, Narromine, Peak Hill and Parkes. The riders are expected to be in Parkes on Thursday to grab some well-earned lunch at KFC between 12pm and 12.30pm, if you would like to cheer them on.

If you would like to support the ride with a donation go to www.msmmilling.com.au and search for the Mill2Mill charity bike ride.

There’s been some confusion over how the new bin system will work, so here is the information in a nutshell. Parkes Shire Council now have a new waste collection service that will recover more recyclables and organic material from entering landfill, helping you waste less, recycle more and keep the environment happy. All material from the green lid bin (food and organics) will be processed into mulch. The recycled material (yellow) will also be processed
and manufactured into new products.

The new bins will enable increased capacity for recycling (yellow lid bin) and food and garden waste (green lid bin) while still providing a garbage waste bin (red lid bin). The three bin collection service will begin the week of the 4th April 2016, so keep using your current bins until 4th April! After April 4th the new bins will be good to go
when a new truck with a different lifting system will be able to pick them up and clean them out. Also, if your old bins are put out after April 4th, they won’t be picked up so make sure you don’t throw away the
wrong bin!

The old bins will be collected on 26th April which will be a once off event so please remember to put your old bin
our by the evening of the 25th April. Chris Foley, Waste Service Officer, says; “If anyone hasn’t received the info pack attached to the bins you can phone the Council on 1300 725 415.” The information packs include a fridge calendar that is colour coded so you know when to put out which bin. Cr Alan Ward, Chair of Parkes Shire Council’s Waste Committee said the new service will provide a much improved environmental outcome and allow Council to meet the State government’s goal of achieving 70% diversion of domestic waste going to landfill.