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When women support each other, incredible things happen. A group that knows this too well, are WILD, Women in Local Democracy. ‘WILD, with principles of gender equity, diversity and active citizenship, promotes women’s empowerment, community participation and local political leadership. WILD, in supporting women candidates, aims to redress Geelong Council’s entrenched gender gap and to reach the Government’s 2024 state-wide target of 50:50 women and men on Council at the City of Greater Geelong.’ Quote from WILD member Jenny Wills, page 207 of the Humans in Geelong Book.

Are you Interested in running for council in October 2020? WILD have some not-to-be missed workshops coming up. Check out their facebook page www.facebook.com/GeelongWILD

Join Ruth McGowan OAM, on 29^th of February at the Geelong Library from 9am – 1pm. She’s an author and experienced independent political campaigner who will help you decide whether running for public office is for you. Ruth will share her expert advice on how to plan a successful campaign to win.

Continue reading “WILD – Women in Local Democracy, update.” →

Update: Adyan and his family’s visa has been extended until March 24^th. They are still waiting for a positive response from Immigration to be able to stay in Australia permanently. Adyan finished kindergarten and has started Prep at a Northern Bay College P-12 Campus where he is loved and cared for. His family still need our help. You can help by going to the change.org petition, http://chng.it/QwXm2VcB2T sign it and then go in to the updated information. This will give you information on how you could write a letter of support and where to send it.

Here is our original story from Adyan’s father, posted Nov 1^st 2019: “A minor disability should not be a reason for deportation. Let our family and our little son, Adyan stay in our hometown Geelong. PLEASE SHARE. We love Geelong and Australia, and think of it as our home. I have completed my PhD in engineering here, and my wife who was a doctor in Bangladesh is becoming a registered GP here. We are hardworking, self-sufficient parents who have built a life for our son in this beautiful country, we will have the means to pay for any physio that Adyan requires.

Continue reading “Update, Let Adyan stay.” →

Rob from the band ‘King August’ was wearing his Murlocs t-shirt when I met him down at the waterfront. He is thankful that there is so much talent in the Geelong region because he believes it’s “friendly competition” that allows bands in this region to grow and improve. Will, from ‘The Run’, adds “pressure makes diamonds”.

“Buying other people’s merchandise is a great way of supporting them. Getting out to live music is another,” continues Rob.

“When my previous band ‘Chicken Nugget Rocketship’ broke up, Sam and I found Chris and Tom through my cousin’s band ‘Channel Marker 6’. We became ‘King August’ and are on the way to releasing our first single.”

Rob and the team at ‘Spaceman’ organised ‘Band Together, Geelong Fires Up’ where 13 Bands or musicians performed on The Pier on January 26^th, for Bushfire Relief. They raised over $3,000. His band, ‘King August’ played and their heavy, rocky style inspired me, so I wanted to find out more. Interestingly, Rob’s venture ‘Spaceman’ is uniquely, creating new opportunities for local acts to shine.

Continue reading “King August, Rob.” →

Mentoring this gorgeous girl has been an immensely rewarding experience. Emily and I met in 2016 when I saw an ad in our school newsletter for Raise, a Foundation calling for volunteers to mentor young mums. We worked through a two-year program together. Now, 4 years later, we are still very close friends. I’ve been to all four of Emily’s daughter Kaydence’s Birthday celebrations. I felt extremely privileged to attend Emily and Chris’s wedding and super excited last year to welcome the arrival of their baby boy Raidon. We also love to catch up over a curry.

I’m so incredibly proud of Emily. She and her husband Chris are saving for a house, they’ve given up smoking, she’s studying and working part-time, they have two delightful children and they help out in their community.

I’ve always thought of Emily as a friend rather than a mentee. We have both grown from the experience and supported each other. For the first Humans in Geelong Expo in 2017 I was petrified no-one would turn up. I nervously talked to Emily before the event and she very calmly told me, ‘of course they will turn up Jacqui’. She, Chris and baby Kaydence, were the first through the door and have supported it yearly. Boy, did that help calm my nerves.

Continue reading “Mentoring Emily.” →

How does the boy who started out selling ice-creams at Village Geelong end up becoming an award-winning film maker, who has created, produced, directed and stared in feature films, TV series and stunt shows? Here is Rob Baard’s story.

Rob grew up in Norlane and went straight from school to a Village Cinema traineeship in 1998, where he trained in all areas. Village seemed a good fit because, even from a young age, he’d always been into film, writing scripts, making costumes and making short films. His enthusiasm, determination and dedication at Village, led him to become cinema manager by 2000.

During his time at Village Rob completed his first feature film and won many awards, including cinema marketing to which in 2007 he left Village to continue cinema marketing from home  in order to focus on film making in the form of the ‘Ninjaverse’ his own creative film and licensing franchise, www.theninjamovies.com  https://www.facebook.com/theninjauniverse/

Continue reading “Ninjaverse, Rob Baard.” →

Introduction:

Hi! I’m Audrey and today I’ll be talking about Walter Wasylewski. He is my grandpa and I call him Grumpy!

I love him SO much!!

Personality

He is shockingly funny, jolly, and silly. He can be grumpy, and when he is grumpy, he is boiling mad! After all, his name is Grumpy, right?

Continue reading “Grumpy, Walter Wasylewski.” →

The colourful and inclusive, Geelong Rainbow Festival, is back for its third and biggest year ever, running for six days, from today, 4th until Sunday 9th February, 2020. Now a much-loved fixture of Geelong’s booming cultural calendar, Geelong Rainbow Festival continues to unite and celebrate the growing diversity of the region’s LGBTIQ+ community and allies, whilst also boosting Geelong’s national and international standing as a progressive, inclusive and creative place to live, work and play.

Organisers at Geelong Rainbow Inc. are looking forward to another positive festival, with sixteen ticketed and free events being offered across multiple locations, including The Geelong Rainbow Pride March, 10.30am this Sunday from Johnstone Park. All are welcome to join in to show their support. This leads in to the Fair Day, also taking place in Johnstone Park this Sunday. All welcome.

Continue reading “Geelong Rainbow Festival, 2020.” →

Seven-year-old Holly is not only a member of Geelong Beekeeping Club but she is also part of Transition Street Newtown for kids. She has a love for gardening, making teas and garden science projects. She wants to see little people taking an interest in gardening and recycling. “They can recycle their toys and clothes for use in the garden to make wonderful outdoor play items.”

Holly has appeared on Vasili’s Garden Show on Channel 7two. She spoke with her mother about ‘Growing Food! Skills for Children and Adults’ at The Eastern Hub, Geelong on 19 January where she received an overwhelming response. Considering she is only seven she is a confident speaker in front of a large audience of adults. She’ll be speaking once a month in a Transitions Street Newtown group to encourage children to garden and enjoy all that nature has to offer that commenced on 26 Jan 2020 for a group of up to 8 people.

Continue reading “Holly.” →

I know, she isn’t a Human, but isn’t she cute! Meet Penny, she’s Geelong’s first Story Dog. She listens to children read. She doesn’t laugh at them or correct them. She’s non-judgmental. But the facts show she is helping children succeed. It’s fun for the children, their focus improves, their confidence soars and so do their reading skills.

Story Dogs, a non-profit, was founded by two Mums, Janine Sigley and Leah Sheldon and in 2009 in Murwillumbah, NSW. www.storydogs.org.au The mission is to ‘make reading fun for children, so they become confident, lifelong readers.’

This highly successful program is finally coming to Geelong. Story Dogs are on the lookout for Primary Schools that would like to participate. There is no cost to the school and no cost to the students as sponsors fit the bill.

Continue reading “Penny the Story Dog.” →

From small ideas great things grow. After getting married and starting her family, Primary School teacher, Del Renton would spend hours searching various websites, and accessing various Facebook pages to try to find activities around Geelong that would be child-friendly and be of interest to her family and friends.  Five years ago, this busy ‘new mum’ had a brilliant idea to put all of this information in one easy to find place so others could also look at things being posted and not have to spend hours searching various websites.  As we know, the days of reading a newspaper and circling various events has now been surpassed by social media.  With phones in our hands and most of us on Facebook, WhatToDo Geelong was born. https://www.whattodogeelong.com.au/

 

Creating a Facebook page which collects information pertaining to our beautiful region was envisaged by Del, making initial contact with businesses and events coordinators around Geelong, to ask if she could share their information on a Facebook page.  Soon ‘word of mouth’ took over and those same businesses and events coordinators were contacting her.

Continue reading “What to do Geelong, Del.” →