Earlier this week team Awesome Newcastle gathered in the Young Street Hotel’s Pool room to give away $1,000 no-strings attached cash. The drizzling autumn afternoon did not dampen our spirits and we welcomed four great guest board members. Previous permanent board member Adam Novak was amazingly back in town to contribute. We also welcomed Glen James of the Money Money Money podcast, Australian Champion Powerlifter Natalie Bartolo and Rob Dudgeon of City of Newcastle.

Our finalists this month were Alan Johnson with Arts in Recovery, Bianca Bartlett with Full Circle Collective and Emily Holm of Quiet Enjoyment.

Alan went first. He’d actually pitched for Awesome Newcastle back in 2019 as well. He explained that Arts in Recovery (AIR) is a volunteer-run initiative that connects with people with mental illness and invites, encourages and supports them to come along to a monthly arts workshop at The Creator Incubator in Hamilton North. Around 30-40 people attend each workshop, which are free to everyone, with all materials supplied, including morning tea and lunch. Volunteers gently encourage people to come along and provide transport if needed. They would use the money for  paying rent for storage of supplies, insurances and catering for each workshop.

Bianca went next. She was also an Awesome Newcastle winner in 2024! Bianca explained her business, The Full Circle Collective which is a circular economy hub located at 437 Hunter Street. Their Repair Cafe is launching as a weekly event starting 26th April.  To make the weekly cafes more engaging, she plans to introduce screen printing as a creative way to upcycle or repurpose damaged items like old t-shirts. They want to purchase a Cricut cutter, allowing for intricate stencil designs that can be used again and again. This will allow them to assemble a more comprehensive repair kit to make available to all community members to further support their repair and upcycling journeys.

Emily was our final finalist. She’s a union organiser/industrial negotiator/professional argument-haver currently working in a different space after being the organising director for the YES case on the referendum. Recently she supported three acquaintances though disputes with their landlords and now she is working on a plan to take her services as an advocate to a wider audience of renters. Think of it as roadside assistance for renting! She would use the money to conduct research to establish whether there is a need and an appetite for the kind of business she is considering starting. She’d look at price point, fee models and service offerings.

As per usual the board had an impossible task on their hands! We counted the votes and their was a tie for first, so we had to go into seconds and thirds! Awesome Newcastle once again demonstrating the value in ranked voting!  It came down to the wire but a decision was reached and Glen awarded Bianca the money!

Congratulations Bianca on your second win at Awesome Newcastle! Look at you go!

Congratulations to our other finalists as well! Clearly you have some great ideas that more folks need to know about! Thanks to our generous board as well! Start planning your next big idea and we’ll see you at Awesome Newcastle May!

Here is an Awesome Recap by our lovely board member Adrienne Donelly!