Cr Danita Potter - Community Portfolio Report - 15 February 2017

Libraries

There have again been a number of activities and events at our local libraries.

Dannielle Wicks, local author, visited the Nanango and Kingaroy libraries to talk about all things writing and her latest book in the Hardest Mistakes series “Broken Sunrise”. Dannielle entertained over 20 attendees speaking about plot lines, proof reading and getting published. Dannielle also explained the challenges facing authors who are looking to be published in today’s e-book environment. 

A special games morning was held at the Kingaroy Library to encourage new members to attend the regular scrabble, cards, chess and mah-jong groups that meet at the Library each week.  Those attending had a great morning socialising and playing, with a number of new groups formed.  The Kingaroy Library also recently hosted local Tai Chi practitioner Antonia to discuss the benefits of the ancient Chinese medicine.  Attendees enjoyed the morning so much that they requested follow up sessions to be run weekly in the library.

The Wondai library has been a hive of activity with the Library providing a special story time held for the Under 2’s group of children from Mother Kate’s Early Learning Centre as well as hosting the conversations group who welcomed a new resident to town where he spoke about a book he is currently writing.

The Proston Library was ‘a buzz’ on Wednesday 22 February, when 30 guests listened to Country Show Judge Cynthia Hatchett to tell of her years of judging at regional and rural shows.  She has had close to 30 years judging experience and is also Secretary of the Murgon Show Society so she has a wealth of knowledge to draw from.  Cynthia went through the Proston Show schedule and gave the audience pointers on the criteria that they have to meet on such things as knitting, crocheting, needlework, handcrafts and floral art.  She bought along a lot of her own craft as examples which proved very popular during the morning tea that followed.  This was a hugely popular event and as a result the library intends to run something along these lines each February.

Community Grant Funding Update

Council has been overwhelmed by the number of applications for Council’s Community grants round which opened in February.  Between the Healthy Communities and the Community Assistance Grants, we have received 34 applications from local not for profit organisations who are collectively requesting over $74,500 to support their initiatives, events and activities.  With a grant budget of $10,000 for Healthy Communities and $20,000 for Community Assistance, it will be a challenging process to assess the applications on merit in this competitive environment.  The assessment committee will meet at the end of this month to work through the applications and I will provide an update on the successful initiatives, events and activities in my April portfolio report.