YOUTH WEEK ACTIVITIES FROM 4-14 APRIL

All Youth Week events are free of charge for young people aged 12 to 24. For more information contact Parkes Library on 6861 2309.

DIY Fun in the Marramarra Makerspace Studio on Mondays 3-7pm and Wednesdays 3-5:30pm

Pizza & Movie Night @ the Cooke Park Pavilion on Tuesday, 5th April from 5pm. See FREE GUY and enjoy pizza and popcorn. Free return bus travel from Tullamore, Trundle, Bogan Gate, Peak Hill and Alectown.

Cult Movie Night at Parkes Library Wednesday, 6th April from 6pm (details below).

Totem Skating Collective @ Parkes Skatepark on Sunday, 10th April from 10am-1pm. Learn to skate workshops for beginner and intermediate levels. Eventbrite bookings at Totem Skating Workshop bookings. Free return bus travel from Tullamore, Trundle, Bogan Gate, Peak Hill and Alectown.

BlueScope Youth Orchestra performances on Monday, 11th April @ Cooke Park Pavilion. A Meet the Band session for young people aged 12 – 24 years from 4-5pm, followed by BlueScope Goes to the Movies community concert for all ages from 6pm.

Youth Library Lock-in Games Night @ Parkes Library on Tuesday, 12th April from 5:30-8pm with board games, table-top games, video games and outdoor games with free pizza.

CULT MOVIE NIGHT

Wednesday, 6th April we will introduce a monthly Cult Movie Night showing a 2021 release based on a classic SCI-FI novel with spectacular cinematography of a distant world with an all-star cast. M-Rated.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

In the Coventry Room from 20th April to 5th May will be a Wiradjuri Ngurambang Showcase celebrating the work of local First Nations artists, as well as the Elvis Festival photography competition and exhibition.

After a week of fundraising and much excitement of 40 rally cars coming to town, the Parkes Prostate Cancer Awareness and Support Group is much closer to its aim of getting a nurse in Parkes.

At the moment, the closest specialist prostate cancer nurse is located in Orange and is responsible for a large area of the Central West.

“These nurses are a vital link in the recovery process of prostate cancer treatment,” said Michael Lynch of the group.

The Parkes group was sponsored by Spinifex Recruiting, and Chairperson Peter O’Donnell made a presentation of $1,000 to Pauline Gosper, co-founder of PCA&SG at the conclusion of the week of fundraising.

Spinifex Recruiting was associated with the Briggs Brothers, who were participating in the Classic Outback Trail, to raise funds for Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia. The Briggs Brothers in turn matched the Spinifex Recruiting donation by presenting co-founder of PCA&SG Michael Lynch with a further $1,000 donation last weekend.

Residents who made a donation were given the opportunity go into a draw to be the passenger in the Briggs Brothers Team’s 1965 Mustang for a drive around the Parkes CBD. The winner of the draw was Bhupinder Singh. Unfortunately, the Briggs Brother’s Mustang was plagued with technical problems and they were unable to participate in the Parkes Section of the Classic Outback Trail. However, in the true spirit of the classic car fraternity, other drivers came to the rescue and the offer was fulfilled.

Along with the generous donations from Spinifex Recruiting and the Briggs Brothers, the Parkes community helped to raise over $2,000 with donations still coming in.

“The PCA&SG would like to thank Spinifex Recruiting, the Briggs Brothers, the Parkes community and The Parkes Phoenix, for supporting their efforts to raise funds for the appointment of a Regional Specialist Prostate Cancer Nurse,” said Michael Lynch.

Talk about ‘Bridge over Troubled Waters’ – we’ve been on again and off again, masks on, masks off, masks recommended, ever since this COVID situation reared its ugly head. There was a ‘Bridge of Sighs’ at the top scoring 97.0 match points win last Thursday for Suzie McNamara and Beth Thomas. If ‘Love can Build a Bridge’, it has built one between this long-term partnership. Monday and Tuesday bridge winners were Warren Blatch with Bill Burke, and Helen McQuie with Mark Olsen. It’s always great to see new players ‘Crossing the Bridge’ to join us. Don’t be on a ‘Bridge to Nowhere’! We can arrange private lessons. Call Greig Ball 0429 621 712 or Kevin Robinson 0429 621 712.

By Beth Thomas

 

Turn the dial forward to a new week, and pleased to report all our travellers have returned to base safe ‘n sound!

Our Pennants teams have represented us at state level. Congratulations on your achievement: Brenda Davies, Marja Iffland, Betsy Johnstone, Rhona Went, Liz Byrne, Merilyn Rodgers, Cherie Frame and Maree Grant – you’ve done us proud!

Today’s casual social bowls program allowed everyone to come back down to earth!

The handicappers were switched on, as all games were very close!

Elaine Miller/Lorraine Baker/Heather Harvey fast-forwarded to a good lead and took the win over Sue Maddison/Chris Cox/Rose Mitchell, despite a strong finish by the latter.

Fran White/Frances Charlton/Lea Orr/Betsy Johnstone/Rhona Went had their aerial tuned in and spun up a narrow win over Jan McPhee/Lynn Ryan/Marja Iffland/Maria Willcockson, despite some mid-game interference!

Gwenda Carty hit the right button when it counted and enjoyed a one-point win over Merilyn Rodgers and Di Howell.

Valmai Westcott/Kay Craft/Liz Byrne scanned several channels without result, only getting their best reception and scoring the winning points during the last few ends against Kim Evans/Carol Reed/Brenda Davies.

Money flew faster than LPs could turn as the club draws took place. The numbers spun up for Gwenda, Lea, Merilyn and Maria!

On Tuesday, 29th March it is our Easter-themed Trading Table. Gifts to the value of $10.

Please give strong consideration to your involvement in the 2022 Pennants Teams. Riding on the back of the success of our No 3s heading off to the state finals, who knows what 2022 will bring! It’s your club, support it where you can. Continue to check the board for upcoming events.

Nominations for Club Pairs are still open and will close early April.

To play social bowls, call the club on 6862 1446 between 9 and 9:30am with play to begin at 10am.

By Lea Orr

The Parkes Painting Group will be adding an artistic spin to this year’s Elvis Festival with a special Elvis Art Exhibition showcasing the work of artists from all over the central west.

Centrally located in the Uniting Church youth centre at 17 Court Street, the exhibition will be featuring artwork with an Elvis theme, whether it is a portrait of the King himself, or an artwork depicting one of his songs.

Parkes Painting Group President Kerry Davies said the exhibition was a great opportunity to celebrate the skills and diversity of artists in the region.

She invited artists to submit three pieces with the closing date for entry forms Friday, 25th March. Artworks need to be delivered to the Parkes Uniting Church on Thursday, 14th April by 5pm.

The exhibition will run from Wednesday, 20th April to Sunday, 24th April, and the public will be able to vote for their favourite artist. There will be six prizes for the works with the most votes to be announced on the last day of the festival.

If you would like to submit your work, contact Kim Chambers on 0418 314 066.

It’s been part of the Parkes business landscape for 55 years, but Furniture One’s owners Johan and Karen Creith have decided it’s time to retire and close down the store.

A massive celebration/closing down sale starts today with 25% -75% off storewide. All rugs, giftware, cushions and artworks are 50% off, while a power recliner is selling for as little as $599! “We will stay open until the stock has been sold, but our aim is to hopefully wrap it up by Easter,” said Karen.

“The sale is also our way of saying thank you to the public for their support and patronage of our second-generation business over the last 55 years. We want them to know that we will miss all our customers but are very excited for the next chapter in our lives.”

Karen said she would love for people to come to the sale not only to perhaps buy something, but also to reminisce and say goodbye.

Furniture One was started by John’s parents, Jim and Inez Creith in the bottleshop of the Parkes Cambridge Hotel in August 1966.

As the business grew it moved to 141 Clarinda Street in 1968. In 1976 the property was modernised and renovated and operated from this location for well over 38 years until its last move to its final home in Saleyards Road.

Jim’s sons John and Peter took over the reins of the family business during the 1990s with Peter only leaving the business six years ago. This left John and Karen at the helm.

John, Karen and Peter were instrumental in building the current home of Parkes Furniture One over 17 years ago with its grand opening sale launched on the 9th of July 2005.

This modern store has been regarded as the flagship store of the Furniture One buying group due to its impressive displays and merchandising of products done by Karen as the instore stylist.

The store has employed many people over the years from Jim’s mother, Maggie as the original bookkeeper to eventually handing the role over to her other son John, to Leigh Somers working in admin and eventually Jim’s two sons, John and Peter taking over as managers.

Lots of employees have remained as dear family friends while many young nephews spent time in the delivery truck during school holidays. John and Karen’s children played many roles from childhood radio stars doing ads for the fee of a lunchtime treat at KFC to Jack featuring on TV commercials.

“We have been blessed to have had the opportunity to have such a long lasting and positive relationship with the community and have developed such special relationships with many of our customers whom we now consider more as friends,” said Karen.

By Maggi Barnard

 

The Designer of the Phoenix newspapers celebrated a momentous milestone this week reaching her 1,000th edition in eight years.

Lisa Brien designed her very first edition, Issue 271 of the Canowindra Phoenix, on 21st November 2013, and with this week’s Parkes Phoenix Issue 290 she clocked up 1,000 editions of doing all the advertising and layout design.

She was there for the first edition of the Forbes Phoenix on 3rd July 2015, and the first edition of the Parkes Phoenix on 11th March 2016. To date she has done 392 issues of the Canowindra Phoenix, 318 issues of the Forbes Phoenix and 290 issues of the Parkes Phoenix.

“No two weeks are the same and no two papers are the same,” said Lisa. “I enjoy the challenge that each week brings. It is like putting together a big puzzle that is continuously evolving, and trying to get all of the pieces to fit together to create a visually appealing, balanced publication.”

Lisa says the trickiest part of her job is managing the hundreds of emails she receives every day from three editors and three sales managers. “I have to be super organised and am fanatical about my colour coded flag system and folders.”

Over the past eight years Lisa has worked for three different owners of the papers. She started with Cheryl Newsom, then Sarah Maynard from January 2017 and the current owner Joshua Matic took over in October 2019.

She has seen how the papers reflect the state of the local communities, especially during the drought years when the papers were at their leanest with only eight pages each. “We celebrate the boom times and also suffer with the community through hardships.”

Lisa discovered the beauty of technology early on as it allows her to work remotely.

She has designed issues of the Phoenix from all over the country – from a beach at Batemans Bay, NSW to one in Hervey Bay, Queensland. “The most remote place I have designed a paper is sitting in a paddock on a cattle property near Roma in Queensland! It was the only place where I could hotspot my phone to get an internet connection. I have even pulled over on the side of the highway while driving to Canberra to make last minute changes on the morning of print.”

Cheers to Lisa and another 1,000 editions!