On Wednesday night we were back in business for another Awesome Newcastle at the Young Street Hotel. We gathered in their cozy pool room to give away another $1000 no-strings attached cash.

We welcomed several guest board members including Ennia Jones from Splash of Colour Swimming, Ennia was a previous winner of the Awesome Newcastle grant and has gone on to do amazing things! We welcomed first time guest board members Andrew Windybank of SWS lawyers, Andrew Bondfield of Cessnock Performing Arts Centre and Matt Ellis of Macquarie Group.

This month our finalists were Emily Connell of Oh My Folklore, Kacie Brooks of Awesome Human Festival and Ricky Pass with his film idea.

Kacie went first. She is a mum, wife and proud neurodivergent woman who created The Neuro Spicy Village, and later, the Awesome Human Festival as a natural extension of both her lived experience and my commitment to inclusive community. The Awesome Human Festival will happen next year and is a community-led neurodiversity and mental health event designed to serve and connect communities across Lake Macquarie, Newcastle and the wider Hunter region. She would use the money to subsidise participation costs for 10 Newcastle-based stallholders.

Emily went next. She is an avid historian and with filmmaker Tom Kelly, the two have founded Oh My Folklore, a creative platform dedicated to preserving and reawakening the rich tapestry of local folklore within Newcastle and its surrounding areas. They plan to bring stories to life through cinematic short-form videos and longer documentary-style pieces. The videos will be focused towards social-media oriented audiences, and they would use the money to buy equipment  to ensure high quality engaging content.

Ricky went last. He only had the afternoon to plan as he was a last minute finalist after another candidate cancelled, but never-the-less he was prepared and up for the challenge. He is currently a full time film student at TAFE who is passionate about making art. After working at homeless shelters and rehabilitation centres for recovering addicts, he wants to make a film to help the general public better understand ICE and heroin addiction, and how to better help people who want to get help. He would use the money to purchase equipment to make the film.

The board had a challenging task on their hands and they were in for a surprise! After everyone cast their votes, we realised that, for the very first time in Awesome history, we had a three way tie! (We only had nine board members on site.) The board then went to preferential voting and determined a winner.  We invited Ennia to the stage and she handed the money to Emily and Tom of Oh My Folklore!

Congratulations to Emily and Tom, and also best of luck to Kacie and Ricky. It is not easy to pitch to a board of strangers and you all did really well! You never know, hopefully we’ll get you back for another Awesome Newcastle!