I have not felt up to writing a blog for some time. After the Referendum, I didn’t feel like doing much at all. And now, we have Australia Day to contend with.
The Mt Pleasant Community Association Inc, which runs the Australia Day Community Awards ceremony decided that this year we would hold it on the 28th. This year the holiday makes it a long weekend, and we had an issue a few years back when many people stayed away. As the event is funded by the MPCAI, sustaining a loss is a big hit for us. Some people have complained to us in the past that we shouldn’t charge for the Breakfast, but as the main event funded by council is held at Tanunda, we have only approached council once for funding, where we received a small amount. A lot of effort for a small return.
We have always enjoyed the community awards event. Taking submissions from members of the community regarding who they think is worthy of an award is always rewarding for us, and we have often found out things about community members that we never knew. There are some great people in this district. Many of whom get no recognition, and that’s the way some of them like it. We are proud of all our past recipients, and are looking forward to this year’s event.
As previously mentioned, we are a small community organisation and would rather spend the money on community projects than sustain a loss, and many of the people who bring this event to our town have been doing so for decades. It’s no small feat to get up early and set everything up to serve a hot breakfast - not knowing how many people will attend.
In the last few years, a few community members have attended a couple of workshops with Chris Sands, who started the Totally Locally movement. Chris is all about passing on free information and advice that encourages communities to be proud of what they have achieved. To support each other and small businesses so their towns don’t die. One of the initiatives was a ‘Meet Your Neighbour’ event, which Eden Valley has used to its advantage over the last year, and Cath Davies from Robbers Dog also used to encourage people to assist with the re-vamp of the CWA garden.
One of the perks of COVID has been an increase in the populations of many small towns, with families choosing to move from the cities where the likelihood of the transmission of virus’ like COVID is more likely, to an area where the population is more likely to not travel to risky places at those times.
A ‘Meet Your Neighbour’ event seems like another good reason to get together at a time when we are more likely to have people willing to take a couple of hours mid-morning to come along and have a cuppa and a chat. We welcome those who are new to our town, and look forward to meeting them and letting them know what the district has to offer.
We hope you’ve had a restful and enjoyable Christmas and new Year, and that we see you at the Community Awards event on January 28th at the CWA Garden.