Ava Curr, daughter of Paul and Kelly Curr, was spellbound representing the Western Region in the Premier’s Spelling Bee Finals on the 9th of November at the ABC studios in Sydney. The year 4 student from Tullamore Central School was the Junior Section winner of the Regionals in Dubbo, becoming one of 43 juniors to make it to the finals. Nine yearold Ava made it to the second stage before the spell was broken.

“Ava will never leave the d out of porridge again,” her mother Kelly said. “But she found the experience exciting and fun, and didn’t stop smiling the whole time – even when they announced her word was incorrect.” Ava met ABC presenters Juanita Phillips and Stan Grant, and NSW Premier Mike Baird presented her with a prize. Whilst Ava has lost her affection for porridge, she loves ice-cream and kittens, and hopes to be an artist or actor when she grows up.

Kindergarten students from Parkes Public School got out of the classroom and into nature during a spring excursion to Bushman’s Dam. The excursion was organised by Marg Applebee of Central West Lachlan Landcare and Michael Chambers of Parkes Shire Council, and provided a range of hands-on activities that focussed on living things.

A replica model of an urban wetland demonstrated how vital water is. The interactive lesson used dye to show how easily chemicals can get into our creeks and dams. In another activity, students sampled water and used magnifying glasses to identify some of the tiny creatures that live in the dam, learning that water-bugs indicate the health of the waterways.

The native animal lesson used puppets to engage the budding biologists while they learnt about habitats and the threats posed by land clearing, weeds and feral pests. The students also potted vegetable seeds, which the young green-thumbs took home to nurture.

The 2017 Parkes Elvis Festival will be the most accessible festival yet, with many options to travel by road, rail and air. For the first time in the Parkes Elvis Festival’s 25 year history, daily return aeroplane charters will transport city-siders from Sydney to Parkes. In another first, a daily bus shuttle will run from Canberra with a complete luxury
travel and accommodation package. The package includes return coach travel from Canberra to Parkes, four nights’ stay with breakfast at 4 star accommodation in Orange, and transfers each day.

Cowra Motor Inn is also offering a fourday package that includes accommodation, coach transfers, selected meals and event tickets. Other options are Visit Orange providing daily return shuttles on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and Cowra Tourism providing daily return shuttles on the Saturday and Sunday.

The daily Forbes shuttle returns with an increased service to and from the festival, while bus services to Peak Hill and the CSIRO Radio Telescope are also returning in 2017. It is expected the number of visitors to increase from the 22,000 attending this year.

Year 4 students at Parkes Public School raised more than $240 in a Dancing Bear Appeal last week. Funds raised will be donated to World Animal Protection, an organisation at the forefront of the fight to free bears from a life of misery. Students first learned of the issue watching a story on Behind the News (BTN) on ABC3. They then studied a book, The Deliverance of Dancing Bears by Elizabeth Stanley. Students were very moved by the story and decided to take action. They first wrote persuasive texts on Why Dancing Bears Must Be Banned! They found that World Animal
Protection (WAP) was the most reputable organisation. Three of the expositions by students of 4R will be displayed on the Supporters Wall of WAP in Sydney.

Class 4R also asked all primary students to bring in a small donation to help the bears and raised much more than expected.

Nominations are open for the 2016 Parkes Shire Sports Awards. To nominate, visit www.parkes.nsw.gov.au, and complete the online form. Nominations close 15th December. The Ron Harrison Memorial Sports Bursary will be
awarded as well and provides financial assistance to sportspersons.

Planning Is The Key To Success
Whether you bought your business or whether you set it up from scratch, no doubt you had a vision. To turn your visions into reality takes hard work and planning. Success does not come overnight.

A small business owner needs to wear many hats: personnel manager, finance manager, information technology manager, inventory manager, and the list goes on. No one can be a master of all these tasks. There are just not enough hours in the day. Whilst running your own business can be a challenge, it can also be very satisfying.
The key is to concentrate on your strengths, and to outsource or delegate the other tasks where possible. If you are lacking a vital skill get someone to teach you. In order to make your vision a reality you need a plan.

A business plan does not have to be a long document. You need to know how your product fills a need, who has that
need, what people are willing to pay for your product, how you are going to deliver your product, how you will finance your business, who you will need to help you and how you can do it better than your competitors.

Your plans need to be flexible; if something isn’t working it needs to be fixed. Problems need to be recognised, sooner rather than later. Following an outdated business plan (or even worse not having a plan), can ruin your chances of succeeding. If you don’t have a plan, you should plan to have one! If you need help, find someone with the skills to help you.

SICK OF CABLES?
If you like a clean and tidy work space, the first thing you try and eliminate are cables. No matter how hard you try, a standard desktop will always have cables going everywhere. With the Lenovo All-In-One S500Z, all you need to plug in is a wireless keyboard and mouse, the power cable and you’re ready to go.

With Core 15 power, 8GB of RAM and a 250GB SSD, it’s ready for anything you can throw at it with no messy cables.
For more info see the team at Leading Edge Computers, Parkes.