Byrne Clothing and Worklocker kindly donated 25 new shirts for the CanAssist volunteers who put in many hours to raise money for cancer patients in the Parkes Shire. The shirts were recently handed over by Tony Byrne (left) to Sylvia Glendenning, Adrianne Brown and Betty Huntly from CanAssist. They are proudly wearing their new shirts.

IMAGE: Unpacking stacks of boxes last Thursday were at the back (L-R) Ruth Schneider, Irene Ross, Kath McAneney, Margaret Tanner, Bev Dawson and Lesley Fisher. In front are Rhonda Redenbach, Annette Witherow and Margaret Lewis.

After nine weeks of forced closure the Craft Corner volunteers were very excited to unpack their stock last week even though it was only in a temporary location.

“We will be here at 2/258 Clarinda Street (next to Discount Dave’s) for as long as it takes,” said President Margaret Tanner.

“It is very exciting and challenging at the same time to get everything unpacked.”

The Craft Corner was flooded in the super cell storm that hit Parkes on 2nd January when Clarinda street transformed into a raging river, and everything had to packed up the next day. “Fortunately, we lost very little,” said Margaret.

The shop opened on Monday and customers would not have been disappointed as its delightful range of local goods were back on the shelves.

The Craft Corner has become very popular not only among locals but attracts many visitors every year with its variety of locally produced items. The shop is particularly busy during the Elvis Festival, but has also become a shop of choice for children’s clothes since the closure of Target last year.

The opening hours are 9:30am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday, and 9:30am to 2pm on Saturdays. For more information contact Margaret on 6862 3240 or Rosemary on 6862 2570.

IMAGE: Some of the volunteers who took part in Clean Up Australia on Sunday. They are (L-R) Michael, Hannah, Rhonda, Joanne and Michelle.

A small group of 12 people put in a big effort to make Clean Up Australia Day in Parkes a successful event.

“Clean Up Australia Day is a fantastic and fun event where everyone in the local community can come together to pick up rubbish to help conserve the environment,” said local co-ordinator Michelle Bicket.

“It would be great if we could see a good representation from local community and business groups next year, as many hands make light work,” said Michelle. “It lifts the spirit of participants when working as a team. The sense of achievement when cleaning up a larger area as a team is much greater than struggling with fewer numbers in the same area.” Michelle said even just an hour would make a huge difference to help clean up Parkes. Groups represented this year included Parkes Landcare and Parkes Shire Council staff.

Volunteers cleaned in PAC Park, Rotary Arboretum, Skate Park, the bicycle track and Wellington Road. “We only had 12 participants, however that did not deter them from hard work,” said Michelle. She noted there was a change in the waste collected with less bottles and cans in the environment, which could be attributed to the success of the Return and Earn scheme. There was still a large amount of take away waste in the local parks.

“We all have an impact on the environment through what we use, reuse, throw away and pick up. We can all make a difference by thinking of these things every day to benefit our environment and community.”

Although the official day is over, Sunday’s participants are calling on Parkes Shire residents to still go out and pick up rubbish in the parks and streets in your neighbour-hood. Corn starch bags are available from Council’s Planning & Environment Section at the Council Administration Centre to use for picking up rubbish.

She grew into the sweetest little child who mothered the babies that followed, tried to blame her older brother for her share of the mischief, competed with him for top honours, and made a name for herself by running the hair clippers straight up through the centre of her hair (both from the front and the back) just one week before her first school photo.

The second eldest of our seven children, she was the one who pulled up her little brother’s pants for him, and who cleaned up the baby when she got dirty. During those years when the pressures were overwhelming and there was never enough time in the day, I would not have survived without her willing help. Tall and lanky, she could be described as gangling – all arms and legs, loved taking part in PE and began to excel in athletics and sport.

Someone told my daughter that she might be good at high jump, so my husband happily made her a set of high jumps which we loaded into our VW Microbus every after-noon so that she could practice at the park.

Doing a scissors jump, the only one she knew, she excelled to the point that she was winning her division in high jump at each athletic carnival. Having won the right to represent her school at the 1973 Combined Convent Schools Metropolitan Sports Carnival, and still doing her scissors jump when everyone else was competing with a western roll, she broke the record by 51cm (2 inches) at eleven years of age, jumping 129cm.

She was still winning with a scissors jump when she competed in the Western Districts Combined Schools Sports Carnival in 1978. Can’t help wondering what the Olympics missed out on!

By Margaret Irwin

At the cheque presentation on Monday were (L-R) Daniel Jones (CDS), Stephan Makita (Parkes Services Club), Jamie Cook (CDS), Indigo Kriedemann (CDS Team Teader), Chris Spicer (CDS), Dorothy Charlton (Parkes Services Club President), Fiona McGonigal (CDS) and Brayden Dukes-Rankmore (CDS).

A generous donation by Parkes Services Club brought a lot of joy to Currajong Disability Services (CDS) on Monday.

General manager Mike Phillips donated $5,000 to CDS to cover the cost of transporting more than 30 adults living with a disability to attend a disability bowling league in Orange.

The money will cover the cost of hiring a coach to transport the bowlers to Orange and back seven times a year.

“Currajong Disability are overwhelmed with the generosity of the Parkes Services Club and our local community,” said Indigo Kriedeman, CDS Team Leader. “Without this ongoing support we could not make as many opportunities available to our participants. We cannot thank the Parkes Services Club enough for their continued support.”

CDS have been participating in the disability bowling league for 25 years. Chang-es to funding with the roll out of the NDIS meant that CDS were unable to continue to cover the transport costs.

This meant the CDS participants would have missed out on an activity that they love, give them an opportunity to play a sport and make friends with people from other towns and most of all to have fun.

Luckily the Parkes Services Club stepped up to help cover the costs and ensure the CDS participants could continue this popular and important activity.

Participants of Currajong Disability Services played ten pin bowling in Orange last Friday.

At the awarding of the Jack Scoble Scholarships were (L-R) Parkes Mayor Cr Ken Keith OAM, Manager Cul-tural, Education & Library Services Kerryn Jones, Cr Bill Jayet, Deputy Mayor Cr Barbara Newton, Trish Morgan, Monique Morgan, Alan and Cheryl Thompson (on behalf of Josie Thompson) and Cr Neil Westcott.

Parkes Shire students Josie Thompson and Monique Morgan have been awarded the Jack Scoble Scholarships for 2021.

The scholarship offers funding to students for their tertiary studies, and covers relocation and accommodation costs, or the purchase of a laptop and textbooks.

Josie, a former student of Red Bend Catholic College, carried out her own research and found there was a high demand for speech pathologists in rural communities. She has been accepted into the University of Newcastle to study a Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours).

Monique attended Trundle Central School, and has been accepted into the University of Wollongong to study Primary Education. Monique was inspired by her teachers at Trundle Central School.

“We had a number of outstanding applicants this year of which our panel chose to interview four,” said Councillor Bill Jayet. “Parkes Shire Council is delighted to support lifelong learning by helping to kick start what will no doubt be outstanding careers for this year’s scholarship recipients.”

The Jack Scoble Education Scholarships have provided financial assistance to students to the value of $105,000 between 2006 and 2021.