Last week Awesome Newcastle was back for another no-strings-attached cash give away at the wonderful Young Street Hotel in Carrington.

We welcomed returning guest board member Lisbeth Pena. Michelle Faithfull joined us for the first time as a board member, but years ago she was also an Awesome Newcastle finalist!

Our three finalists were Laura Jackel of The Good News Hunter, Stephen Meek of Newcastle Toy Run and Tim Cox of Common Ground. (Both Toy Run and Common Ground have pitched for us in the past, and Stephen previously won the funding!) Tim has also generously been a guest board member for Awesome Newcastle.

Laura went first. A lifestyle journalist, she was inspired to start The Good News Hunter after a difficult chapter in her life when she was evacuated from her home due to a landslip. She saw how important optimism, resilience and community truly are. The Good News Hunter is an Instagram-first good news platform, dedicated to sharing uplifting, meaningful and joyful stories about the people, places, and projects that make Newcastle and the Hunter region such a great place to live. She would use the money to purchase tools like Monday or Zoho Social to help run the platform more effectively while she’s in ‘start up’ mode. She would also use it to pay local creative freelancers.

Stephen went next. He is a long time advocate of The Toy Run and has been a member of the Bikers for Kids board for 10 years.  He explained the Newcastle Toy Run is in its 49th year, and the project team wants to add to the offering for kids (big and little) a 9 hole pop up golf course just for fun in Connelly Park in Carrington. He would use the Awesome funding would to cover equipment hire, setup and management costs for the course.

Tim went last. He explained that Common Ground is a local collective of philosophers and community members who are concerned about political polarisation and people losing the ability to think critically. “Worried by the heated and divisive state of public discussion today, we seek to build a conversational community to facilitate productive discussion and critical thinking about complex and controversial issues,” their mission states. They welcome people with all sorts of opinions, and since Common Ground started in 2024, they have hosted dozens of events including panels, debates, short courses and movie nights. They would use the money to pay the copyright fees, enabling them to show more films.

The judges had a tough task in front of them, but decisions must be made and votes must be cast! Michelle Faithfull took the stage to pass the cash along to Laura! Congratulations, Laura! We certainly can’t wait to hear more good news from you! Congratulations to Tim and Stephen as well for your excellent pitches. Applications never expire, so we just might see you again at another Awesome Newcastle.