The past couple of months have been an exciting time fraught with change, mixed with public hysteria and fear.

As teachers, we have been strangely, but not unduly, noted as essential workers on the frontline of assisting in the fight against COVID-19.

We have been tasked with the job of teaching online, for many of us for the first time, and doing it effectively, opening the doors of our classrooms to a whole new category of educational consumer – parents.

Teaching with technology is not new, in fact, it is hard to be an accredited teacher these days without evidence of attainment in that section of the curriculum.

But teaching students remotely is very new and there had to be a lot of training to present lessons in such a way that will engage and instruct.

Personally, it meant dipping into my previous experience teaching with the Virtual Selective School provision (xSel) and the first two years of Aurora College.

Those five years gave me a great deal of practical knowledge, but kids, like society, have moved on. They moved from being email and texting students to Instagram and Snapchat students. This meant teachers had to break the content down into small enough bits so that they could grasp it.

Students started returning to school this week and at Middleton Primary they were greeted by a big, bright and cheerful lizard.

The artwork, made from recycled materials by the school community, depicts the Gunbalanya dreamtime story of the blue tongue lizard.

The students looked at and combined both traditional and modern indigenous artwork styles to create the piece measuring five metres by three metres. The lizard was drawn by Year 6 students, Jessica Larsen and Lilly Gosper, and then all students were involved in adding approximately 3,500 colourful bottle tops to complete the full picture.

The artwork has been named Barugil, which is Wiradjuri for blue tongue. The artwork was completed for the annual Waste 2 Art competition and exhibition run by NetWaste.

The project was once again directed by Helen Standen, having led the school to eight previous regional wins in the competition.

Although the competition was cancelled this year because of COVID-19, the students still enjoyed returning to school being welcomed by the eye-catching artwork.

“It is so nice for everyone to be back on board, with more and more students coming back each day,” said teacher Judy Fisher.

The whole school gets involved in the annual Waste 2 Art project during their library time learning about reducing, reusing and recycling waste.

Tim Keith, Parkes’s town crier of the past 24 years, marked this historic anniversary with a ‘Cry For Peace Around The World’ at the Cenotaph in Cooke Park.

Although the cry was done in almost complete isolation in the park, Tim raised his bell with nine other Australian town criers at exactly 3pm, while the New Zealand and Great Britain town criers followed their time zones.

It has been 75 years since the guns fell silent when Winston Churchill officially announced the end of the war in Europe and declared it to be VE Day at 3pm on Tuesday, 8th May 1945.

As a 91-year-old resident of a unit in Southern Cross Village, I feel I had little to complain about during my enforced isolation.

I have a large family, four of whom live locally and one who bought our former homestead. She and her husband live in Sydney, and after isolating for 18 days, she decided to bring her laptop in one day a week and worked from my table, with me in another room.

This, and the very brief visits of the other four when they handed in yummy cooking, and/or groceries from the door, kept me from feeling lonely, as well as extremely well fed.

I realise how fortunate I am and know there are many who either don’t have family or they live too far away to be able to do this.

My kitchen cupboards have never been so organised, as well as my wardrobe. I had time to phone people who I knew might be lonely and vulnerable for a chat.

On the negative side, my spiritual life, which is so important to me, declined. Weekend masses were discontinued, as well as daily masses at the school chapel, which I rely on for spiritual comfort. Admittedly, Father Barry arranged for a home liturgy kit to be delivered to us over Easter with all the epistle and gospel readings for Holy Week. I am still receiving a weekly bulletin with all the readings for the current weekends, so all that is missing are my fellow parishioners and Father to share them with, plus of course Holy Communion.

When it comes to such trying times as we are in at present the true colours of mateship and team spirit come shining through.

Parkes Dragon Boat Club (PDBC) members have found ways of staying connected under the current laws and the closure of waterways.

First came Maggi’s virtual morning teas with an Easter hat parade, and entertainment from Louise, Beth and Bill.

As the weekly virtual chat proved so popular, Robyn came up with a novel idea to do a virtual walk along the iconic Route 66 in the USA, covering 3,665km. A good number of members are counting daily steps with a fair section already covered.

Whilst counting his steps, Gattie came up with the idea of taking selfies outside other members’ homes when out exercising… Safe distancing at its best!

Al is keeping everyone entertained posting his hilarious ‘bin isolation outings’ every week.

In lieu of training time, club members opted for volunteering and are helping out twice a week at Georgie’s Pantry.

Bill has set up a simulated boat over their pool and with the easing of laws and consent given by the local Police, Beth has started one on one coaching for members.

Staying connected is a vital cog in helping to come out the other end of this pandemic as a strong and healthy group.

It makes me proud to be part of this club with an amazing band of people. If you’re looking to join a great group, we will welcome you once we are back on the water.

By Bill Thomas,
PDBC President

Three showgrounds in the Parkes Shire have received good news this week of grants worth thousands of dollars for upgrades to facilities.

The Parkes and Tullamore show societies will receive $102,183 and $148,550 respectively through the Regional Agricultural Show Development Grants program, while Peak Hill received funding through the improvement program of the NSW Government.

A total of $20 million in grants were allocated to 122 regional agricultural show societies to renew and reinvigorate ageing showgrounds.

Minister for Agriculture, David Littleproud, said the grants would also serve as a much needed cash injection in the wake of recent bushfires and the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Ag shows are the heart and soul of our regional communities. They bring and keep communities together, link the country to the city and provide a key boost to these local economies.”

The money in Parkes will be used to carry out repairs to the luncheon room involving roof, box guttering and ceiling replacement, and repairs to the main arena grandstand including flooring, seating, handrails, steps and loose brickwork. Bird-proofing will also be installed.

The Tullamore Pastoral, Agricultural and Horticultural Association Inc will use the money to concrete the poultry shed floor, provide new flooring for bathrooms, line the pavilion dining room, install shelter over horse yards, construct a verandah for the pony club shed, provide power for barbecues and shelter at the camping area, and provide portable yards.

The upgrades at Peak Hill will focus on keeping facilities safe and functional.

No one knew how seriously the virus was going to affect businesses and the community initially.

It took a couple of weeks for people to realise how virulent the virus was, which meant huge adjustments in places of work, like in hair salons.

Regulations for hairdressers were confusing, first introducing half hour appointments, and shortly after changing it back to unlimited time per client.

Initially it was very stressful for staff dealing with rearranged appointments, cancellations, spacing of clients and sanitisation. We found the best way to deal with it was laughter.

As time went on, coming to the salon for our senior clients was a life line in some ways as they do not have access to internet, live alone or do not have family around.

We asked clients why they came to the salon during the pandemic and some said they could not do their own hair because of medical issues. Others said interaction with our staff and other clients gave them some normality, while for others it improved their self-esteem, or helped them cope with isolation.

At first, we were puzzled as to why we were still allowed to operate, but came to the realisation we were contributing to mental health and wellbeing.

As the old saying goes: “If you can’t have a holiday, have a haircut.”

By Janice Cassidy