Category: work

I missed posting last Sunday.

I spent the day at ReActivate Latrobe Valley‘s event: Get Cheffed and was straight to bed at the end. The event was fun. We had around 500 local food lovers come through our market and 100 spectators for the main event. The marquee was full of supporters who by pledging to our crowdfunding had made the Chef off and Chef up a reality. So many people contributed to the day and donated their time or cash or goods. It is overwhelming sometimes how generous people are.

My parents had their 53rd wedding anniversary this week. I got married on the same day as them, 30 years ago, but did not go the distance, despite choosing what I thought would be an auspicious day. I only lasted around 5 years married. Enough time to have two amazing children, so no regrets.

Jane had her final day at Serving the Valley on Friday. She worked tirelessly right up until the last second following up opportunities for participants and sharing news on social media. We will miss Jane’s dedication to Serving the Valley, but fortunately we work together on other projects and are friends. Jane has volunteered at The VRI and Traralgon Neighbourhood House from the start. I am happy for her that she has a more rewarding job and I believe she will make a greater contribution where she is going and that she may be able to improve opportunities for more people. Jane is one of the kindest people I know. We had a great party on Friday night!

Lots of other stuff has happened and I’m left tonight feeling very grateful for all the wonderful people we have on our teams. People who step up to help out and support in lots of ways. Brilliant people who roll up their sleeves and get stuff done, and make it fun.

Moments

February 11, 2018

johblogs

community gratitude reflection work No Comments

Each week lots of little things happen that give me big joy. It’s challenging to describe my work week sometimes, so much happens….

I watched my friend Jane deliver her first yoga class here to a room packed with people. Jane headed off to India for two months to explore and be trained as a yoga teacher. We advertised her karma classes little over a week before. Lots of positive feedback. On a personal note it was the first yoga class I’ve attended for around 30 years (apart from YouTube classes). I loved it! Just got to get to bed early so I can get up.

I went to a meeting for Get Cheffed. Two of our chefs know each other very well as Megan was Manny’s apprentice. As the friendly banter went on, Manny very genuinely said he hopes Megan beats him because he trained her to be better than him. That’s a boss I want to see training our youth. As the team ticks off all the details that have gone into this epic undertaking I feel in awe of all the work, the quality of the work and the generosity of our foodie and business community. An impressive lineup of people from crowdfunding supporters, businesses sponsors, food industry celebrities and some govt funds is going to equal something very special for Gippsland and our team has plowed through the many stages of putting this on.

An irreplaceable belonging went missing this week. Our crew were horrified and went into action to track it down. I’m not sure who or how, but the item was returned within hours of it’s disappearance. A bit of detective work and an honest phone call led to the item returned to its owner with huge smiles all round.

A past participant returned to prepare nibbles for our Art Exhibition opening. He’d joined Alt_Art for a meeting and one of the artists had told him about a job opportunity and he got the job! He was so grateful he came back to give a few hours of time and $$ for ingredients to make a delicious feast for our event.

I was given a ticket to Pause Fest. I enjoyed all the speakers I heard. I bumped into a past student who I remembered loved to draw. He has turned his passion into a multi-media company and his work is amazing.

Lots of other stuff happened too but I’ve ran out of time.

Making space

January 21, 2018

johblogs

community reflection work No Comments

Since I’ve come back from my summer break, I’ve been working with Youth Space Latrobe who are on an important mission to co-design a new space for young people in Latrobe Valley. If you know a young person who has great ideas and would like to participate – please share this with them. It’s a huge opportunity and responsibility.

I had the opportunity to share our process of making The VRI space with them.

It was satisfying to remember and talk about the important background work we did with Rosalea Monacella, Craig Douglas, the amazing team from ReActivate Latrobe Valley and our community. I speak to Rose very often since they’ve moved overseas, but still miss having her around. We did so much together- winter and spring festivals, #getsunflowered, 50 Mile Farmers market and especially for me The VRI. We met with countless community groups, businesses and stakeholders.

It’s good to reflect. I’m so busy moving on to the next project or program that I don’t look back on all that’s been done.

I showed the clip that was produced after our consultation.

I found our initial design concept presentation for The VRI which we were calling LV Community Shed or VRI Hall at the time, before we got our branding from The View From Here. It’s tattered from sharing (as shown in photo). So many conversations and meetings around that big pile of paper.

Two Weeks

Moments

Making space

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