Pig Day Out – Raising Funds for Jenny’s Place in Westlakes- 5 Oct- Toronto Hotel

Toronto Sunrise Rotary is bringing fun, colour and community spirit to the Toronto Hotel on Sunday 5 October with their much-loved Pig Day Out. This year, the stakes are even higher with all proceeds going once again to support Jenny’s Place, a vital local service for women and children escaping domestic and family violence.

Jenny’s Place has been helping women and children in the Hunter for over 40 years, offering crisis accommodation, outreach, legal and emotional support, and pathways to safer, healthier futures. With plans now underway to expand services into the Westlakes area, local support has never been more important. Domestic violence is sadly a reality in every community, and having accessible, specialised services close to home can make all the difference.

Pig Day Out promises to be a family-friendly extravaganza. Gates open at 11 am, with the first of five piglet races kicking off at 12 noon. Between the races, there’ll be delicious food and drinks, a jumping castle, face painting, superheroes to meet, and of course plenty of laughs and squeals from the track. Best of all entry is free.

By coming along, you’ll not only enjoy a day of entertainment but also contribute to a cause that saves lives. Jenny’s Place helps women recognise unhealthy relationships, provides safe spaces when they need to leave, and connects families with housing, financial and emotional support. The new service planned for Westlakes will extend that lifeline even further.

Toronto Sunrise Rotary has a proud tradition of combining fun with fundraising, and this event is a great chance to show support, catch up with neighbours, and help strengthen our community’s safety net.

So mark your calendar for Sunday 5 October at the Toronto Hotel. Come for the pigs, stay for the community, and leave knowing you’ve made a difference.

Upcoming Events

NATIONAL TREE DAY IS COMING- 31/7/22

National Tree Day is fast approaching on July 31, 2022. Five Bays Sustainable Neighbourhood Group and ReLeaf Lake Mac have registered a National Tree Day event at Blackalls Park, near Todd Oval, South Parade. 

It is the only official event in western Lake Macquarie. Kay Fraser, Mayor of Lake Macquarie and Dan Repacholi, Federal Member for Hunter will be attending. Start time is 10am with the official ceremony at 10.30am.

If you interested in coming up to Blackalls Park, we would love to see you! Registrations can be made at this site. Or just come on the day. Remember to bring your hat, gloves and something to dig with. Closed in shoes are a MUST.

Carey Bay Toronto Scouts Fundraiser

Nico's Great Cycle Challenge

During October Nico Marcar is once again taking part in the Great Cycle Challenge to fight kids' cancer!

Nico is combining his passion for cycling with assisting a worthy cause, supporting the Children's Medical Research Institute to continue their work into the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and finding a cure for childhood cancer. Cancer is a very serious disease and it is the largest single killer of children from disease in Australia.

Please consider supporting his challenge by making a donation through his fundraising page

Plants-a-Plenty orders due 30/4/18

Autumn is a great time to plant with rain guaranteed at some point before the summer heat hits. The CPPA is coordinating a bulk purchase of plants at a discounted rate to support locals in their native gardening endeavours and to raise funds for the local landcare activities.

There are plants for all garden areas including edges, hedges, quick covering climbers, plants you can sit on, no mow grasses and bird attracting berry producers.

Native plants, especially ones local to our area are well suited to our local climate, require much less water than exotic plants and support the local wildlife.

The native plants-a-plenty can be bought as individuals or as a ‘plant pack’, 3 for $10. There is an order form on the website , which will provide us with a good idea of how many plants to order.

Native Plants-A-Plenty Fundrasier

The CPPA is having a native plants-a-plenty fundraiser to keep the local landcare program kicking along after the 30/6/18 when the Threatened Species project winds up. There is a selection of local plants available, 3 for $10, a good price for tubestock that will make your garden low maintenance, dry-time tolerant and habitat friendly.

Over the past six years the landcare group has grown from 5 to 12 weekly volunteers who protect and preserve our bushland assets through weed management and planting when appropriate. Ten reserves, including the big ones at Stansfield and the West Ridge, covering the majority of the bushland in our community, are on a recovery trajectory thanks to the 14,614 hours this group has contributed in the past six years, conservatively valued at $438,430.

It’s not only the public land that benefits from the landcare crew by controlling and removing weed worries, the group is reducing the weed incursions into private gardens. The TSLS project has been able to cover the costs of tools, resource books, PPE, morning tea and a fuel subsidy for volunteers that carpool from Newcastle. We are aiming to raise $2500 annually to keep the crew together.

You can complete an order online or via a downloaded hardcopy. The plants will be available for collection at the Art & Craft Show.

Make a difference with a Mo

The Movember Foundation seeks to change the face of men’s health through many different programs aimed at improving the health outcomes of the men in 21 countries. 

Priority issues are prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health. In addition, the Awareness & Education project seeks to educate and inform men on health issues men face. More information is at: http://au.movember.com/programs

There are several locals home grown mos on the go and an online community of mo-bros and mo-sistas supporting the mo-hood.

The recently re-elected Chair of the Toronto Area Sustainable Neighbourhood Group, Nico Marcar is participating in his 1st Movember campaign and donations to Nico’s Mo are for a worthy cause.

TASNG Annual Report from The Chair Nico Marcar

The AGM for the local Sustainable Neighbourhood group was held on 9/10/14 and a new Committee elected

Chair                          Nico Marcar

Assistant Chair            Suzanne Pritchard

Secretary                    Lois Simpson

Treasurer                    Tricia Hunt

Assistant Sec.             Tony Stephens

Alliance Rep.              Steve Dewar

Once again, our achievements are due to the hard work of our committee and project leaders. Special thanks to John Gill for the rigour and enthusiasm he has shown as Secretary since the inception of TASNG (sadly, John will not be nominating this year and he will be greatly missed) and to Steve Dewar for again representing TASNG at the Alliance meetings. Sadly Era Wellsmore (our former treasurer) died in June from a prolonged fight with cancer; Era made a great contribution to TASNG, the Coal Point Progress Association (CPPA) and the Toronto Tidy Towns Association.

We have continued to work closely with the Sustainability Alliance of Council (thanks to Rachelle and other Council staff) to consolidate our group, deliver our projects and advertise our activities through the Council website and pamphlets. We also maintain an excellent working relationship with the Coal Point Progress Association (CPPA), thanks to Suzanne Pritchard, and the Toronto Tidy Towns Association, thanks to Kelly Hoare and Lynn Pascoe.

There are currently three teams operating:

1. Recycling and Waste Management (Steve Dewar leader)

2. Cycling and Pedestrian (Nico Marcar leader)

3. Landcare (Robyn Gill leader); this team is closely linked with the CPPA landcare project.

In addition, we continue to maintain a close association with the Community Gardens project (Chris Murphy leader), which operates at The Hub (formerly the Toronto Senior Citizens Association), Toronto.

We successfully completed two community projects this year;

(i)             'The Tossers Can Be Binners' project which aimed to minimise littering near Woolworths and Aldi and surrounds through the installation of bins, recycling facilities, signs, commissioning of a mural on a wall of the carpark facing The Boulevarde and graffiti cleaning on the stairwell of the parking station (with grants from Combined Clubs via Toronto Worker's Club and Keep Australia Beautiful), Steve Dewar leader and

(ii)            A 'Fire Retardant Garden Demonstration' project with an 80 m sq garden of fire retardant plants established at the Toronto Fire Station (with a grant from Council and with enthusiastic support from the firefighters!), Lois Simpson leader. Both projects garnered considerable community support and publicity, including at their launches.

We have also been proactive with requests to Council for improving cycling facilities at Fennel Bay Bridge and locations in the Toronto area. We continue our interest to interact with Council on improvements to cycling and pedestrian access, further discussions on the next phase of the Toronto Streetscape Master Plan and community consultations on specific DAs.

TASNG Landcare

The Toronto Area of the Sustainable Neighbourhood group encompasses Toronto and supporters are sought for Landcaring along the Greenway- 2^nd Sunday of the month from 9am-noon. Carey St to Cook St contact Alex steelaljo@gmail.com or Joan Steele 0425 201 322, 4959 1472

Putting their best foot forward

Local Oxfam Trail Walkers are pledging to raise at least $1400/team by walking 100km from the Hawkesbury to the Harbour over the weekend of 22-24 August. The Carey Bay Crawlers including (Mark and Leanne Shields) and the four teams from the Renee Schofield Personal Training rainbow Blue, Orange, Pink and Purple will be putting their best feet forward again and again and again for this worthwhile cause. If you’d like to donate to support these local pedestrians visit the Oxfam Trailwalker website and make a donation.

Oxfam Trailwalker in Australia has raised more than $49 million since 1999. Oxfam is determined to change the world by mobilising the power of people against poverty.

Through the support of the Trailwalker teams, Oxfam funds are used to work with families and communities promoting education, ensuring access to clean water, teaching skills to grow food and fighting for their rights.

Art & Craft Show Immanent

The Art & Craft show opening night on Friday 16th November  celebrates local artistic talent in a community space, Progress Hall. The night brings art loving locals under the one roof to catch up and kick off the festive season. 

This year’s Art & Craft show will provide local artists with a venue to display their works and the community with opportunities to acquire something unique. 

Additionally the Opening Night will officially launch the NSW Environmental Trust Funded Threatened Species Last Stand on the Coal Point peninsula project.

Opening night will run from 7.30 to 10.30pm and will include

• Official Opening and Project Launch by Greg Piper MP
• Auctions of a painting by June Friend (Mattara Prize winner), Quilt from Sew Easy, Toronto, and 4 art lessons provided by the Arts Emporium
• Lucky Door Draw
• Art and Craft items for sale
• Local Native plants for sale
• Information about the Threatened Species project

Opening Night bookings are being taken to assist with catering. For $10.00 per person you’ll receive a glass of wine/soft drink & nibbles and a ticket in the lucky door prize.
Contact Barbara 49591259 or 0409839428 for bookings.

 The Art & Craft Show excitement will continue over the weekend on 17-18 November with demonstrations by

• Geoff Davis, renowned leatherworker who will be making a leather belt over the week-end - if anyone would like to pre purchase the belt he will make it to order. 
• Jean Hurley showing her encaustic art technique
• Stephen Cassettari demonstrating his Chinese painting and
• Florence Humphreys, renowned porcelain and ceramics painter demonstrating her skills.

The Art & Craft Show raises funds towards upkeep and maintenance of  Progress Hall which is owned by the Progress Association.

Toronto Tidy Towns Fundraiser at Progress Hall

Toronto Tidy Towns are holding a fundraiser on Sunday 18^th September 2-5 pm at Progress Hall. You can check out the new paint job. 

BYO picnic lunch, beverages (hot and cold) and some friends and settle in to an afternoon of acoustics music with Blackheart , widely regarded as the fastest rising new stars of the British 'Urban Folk'.  Enquiries and bookings to Lyn Pascoe 0404 002 006.

More information will be shared next month.

Premier's Flood Relief Appeal

It seems like a long time since the The Queensland Floods fundraiser but the memories are lingering and can be revived by viewing the slideshow. It was a very successful event raising $893.10. Sincerest thanks to all the participants who made the evening so memorable. There was laughter, merry making, music and much more.

Thank you to Baker's Delight for providing the intermission munchies, Ross Browne for his puppeteering, the beautiful Bay Boot Scooters for their lively stepping, Bill Carney and Warren Sinclair for their poetry, the Carey Bay Naval Band for their bravery, Sharon Ellam for hokey poking, Russ Redford for his amazing harmonica skills and all the locals for being there. 

The Grand finale- a fun Hokey Pokey

The Carey Bay Navel band

 

A night out, a good cause and some great entertainment

...what more could you ask for on Saturday 30th April between 7-10pm.

The Music Hall Variety Night for the Premiers Disaster Relief Appeal is almost upon us.

All proceeds from the night will go towards the appeal.

The line-up is confirmed, the program in place all that is needed is some happy-go-lucky folk to come along and join in.

You will be welcomed by roving minstrels as you settle in to your seating, you'll be amazed at the adventures Bill Carney-Larrikin Poet has recently endured in the Barrington Wilderness. Ross Browne's unique style of puppetry will have you perplexed but pleased and then the toes will start tapping as the urge to take to the floor is controlled by the Bay Bootscooters. The adrenaline will continue to flow as Russ Redford harnesses his  harmonica to heavenly tunes. A few laughs will be on the cards with the Carey Bay Navel Band's inaugural performance and there's more...but you'll have to come along to experience it.

There are still places available give Warren a ring on 4959 4991 or on his mobile 0412 159 701.

Music Hall at Progress Hall

Roll Up Roll Up...the Progress Association is putting on a local social fundraiser to provide a fun time outing for locals and to support the Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal to assist those affected by the natural disasters in Queensland from Dec 2010 to Feb 2011. All funds raised will go towards this appeal.

The line up for the night has been confirmed with talent that will razzle, dazzle, enthuse and enthrall.

A combination of musical artistry, puppetry, bush poetry, dancing, comedy and historical film footage will provide the backdrop to friendly camaraderie and general joi de vie. 

The aim of the night is to have everyone leaving with a smile on their face and a song in their heart and to herald in the return of the musical hall.

The guest artists include 

• Dazzling Di Lenham-Mistress of the Accordion
• Razzling Ross Browne-Master of Puppetry
• Ready Russ Redford- Harmonicist Extraordinaire
• Bring-It-On Bill Carney-The Bluechip Bush-poet
• The Bay Bootscooters-Line dancing lovelies from Nelson Bay
• the Carey Bay Naval band and 
• a few extra bits to get the blood pumping. 

All this and more (you will be providing the more),can be a part of your fondest memories if you come along on Saturday 30th April from 7pm for the modest admission price of $10pp, $20 for a family. 

Bookings are essential to help in setting up the Hall. So grab some friends and book a table by ringing Warren on 4959 4991 or mob 0412159701.

Musical Hall at Progress Hall

The CPPA will be holding a Music Hall fundraiser to support the Queensland Premier's Disaster Relief Appeal on 30th April from 7-10pm at Progress Hall. Entry is $10 per person, $20 a family with all proceeds going towards the appeal. 

The variety night line up will have something for everyone, drama, bush poetry, amazing harmonica, entertaining accordion, comedy, old-time sing along,  historical film and some local trivia. 

The fun time social evening aims to have everyone leaving with a smile on their face and knowing a few more locals from within our community, as well as raising funds for the Premiers Disaster Relief Appeal. 

Bookings are essential to  coalpointprogress@gmail.com

An Acromegaly High Tea fundraiser for the Australian Pituitary Foundation.

Saturday 5th March 2010 at 1.30pm ,a Westlakes Community Church ,156 Bay Rd, Bolton Point. Cost $5.00 

Please  RSVP to Rochelle Buckley to reserve your Tea-cup by email connormclaren@optusnet.com.au . If you would like to help in any other way, the following donations are needed;

• quality handmade items for our trade table, goods or services (if you are a business) for our Auction
• a plate of slices, savories, sandwiches or cakes on the day suitable for a high tea
• vintage tea cups and saucers, souvenir teaspoons,teapots, sandwich plates, sugar pots etc

Flood Appeal Fundraiser

The Progress Association is looking for local talent to strut their stuff at a community fundraiser in March with proceeds going to the Flood Appeal.

If you can sing, dance, sculpt balloons, recite bush poetry, have a band or an animal with a rare and unique talent that you would like to share, this is golden opportunity. 

We're hoping the night will be fun as it is a fundraiser with a mix of talent and trivia to entertain and also an opportunity to catch up with friends in a friendly atmosphere. 

If you would like to be involved as talent or in the organising subcommittee come along to the February Progress meeting or contact Suzanne. The March Chronicle will have all the details.

Art & Craft show is on very soon

Just in case you’ve been out of town for the past month, missed your November Chronicle or haven’t been in the right spot and the right time to catch the news...

The Awesome Art & Incredible Craft show is on the last weekend of November, and that's very soon.

There are lots of reasons you might want to pop on by such as

• to meet Deborah Abraham, Lake Macquarie Art Gallery's Director, who will be opening the Art show on Friday night
• to bid on award winning auction items during the Friday night opening gala
• to enjoy some community camaraderie on the opening night or over the weekend
• to support local artists
• to network with artists
• to attend a local outing that you can walk to
• to add to your art collection
• to pick up a quaint or quirky gift for Christmas
• to help raise funds to paint the Hall
• to share your ideas for the Progress Association to progress
• to drop in your donations to win $1000 Open Order at Whitakers Jewellers courtesy of Paul Campbell
• welcome in the festive season

What ever the reason, the funds raised are going towards the painting of the exterior of Progress Hall, a quote has come in for $8300, and this event is a fundraiser.

You are warmly invited to the Opening Night, from 7.30 p.m.

To assist with the catering for the Opening Night can you please email artandcraftcppa@gmail.com