Last week Awesome Newcastle were back at The Young Street Hotel with the amazing  Lauren Devine steering the Awesome Ship and being an wonderful host. For March we welcomed wonderful new guest board members Lisbeth Pena, Josh Lawlor and Rebekah Prendergast.

This month our three finalists were Brian Young of High Performance Timber Surfboards, Olga Korlevic of IndigoTeen Magazine and Ethan Andrews (a dear friend of Awesome Newcastle) with his Newcastle Giving Circle Idea.

Brian Young is  a surfer and designer with 30 years of surfboard design and innovation and Josh Fairleigh is acclaimed shaper, maker, and rider with uncompromising standards.. Due to the toxic nature and environmental damage of fibreglass and resin boards, Josh teamed up with Brian to develop the world’s best performance natural surfboard while also addressing long standing environmental and health issues in the surfboard manufacturing industry and the global surfboard market. If awarded the $1,000 grant, they will manufacture Prototype 12B, the next stage of our nine-year development journey.

Olga is a high school teacher and Founder and Chief Editor of IndigoTeen Magazine and a published author of four children’s books. She explained that IndigoTeen Magazine is a youth literary magazine created in the Newcastle area that publishes original writing and art by teenagers, giving them a real, public platform beyond school assignments and social media. IndigoTeen has already produced three published issues entirely through volunteer labour and personal funding. She would use the $1,000 to help cover essential ongoing costs such as printing, design, digital hosting, promotion, and small prizes for standout submissions.

Ethan Andrews is a doting father who also works in philanthropy. His Newcastle Giving Circle idea is to gather a group of people committed to making a $1 tax deductible donation every day and once per year the group donates the pooled funds to a local charity as decided by the donors and to a highly effective global charity addressing extreme poverty. The idea is that through modest sacrifice they can have an enormous impact on their community and the world at large. He would use the money to create a website and market the idea.

As is always the case, the judges discussed and deliberated and then at last a decision was reached! Rebekah took to the stage to announce the winner! Congratulations to Brian and Josh of natural timber surfboards! Here’s to more sustainable surfing!

Congratulations to Ethan and Olga as well! Thank you for sharing your great ideas, and we hope to see you back soon at another Awesome Newcastle!