Can you believe another month has passed already? Last night’s Awesome Newcastle for August was another doozy. Held again upstairs at The Flying Tiger, our board was filled with a lot of returning guests. We had Jacqui Daley from The Measured Marketer, Ty Brennock from Monica Clare, Marty Spiers from H&M Accountants, Courtney Novak from The Lock-up (filling in for Adam Novak), James Barr from The Village of Useful, Jessica Peterson from CWP Renewables and first-time board member Cody McKay from After Hours Mechanical. Special shout out to Cheryl Gledhill who was a last minute apology but still generously contributed $100.

First up was David from Feedback Organic. Feedback Organic sees the best in waste. They collect food waste from businesses in the region and convert it into rich compost. This compost is used to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs that are then sold back to businesses! The farm is located locally in Cardiff and they welcome people to come and be a ‘1 hour farmer’, getting first-hand farm-hand experience. He would use the money to purchase a rotary plow as all work is done by hand and this machinery will make the process more efficient.

Next was Tegan from The Baby Collective Expo. Tegan is running the first Baby Expo in the region in a long, long time this September. The focus is around being a hub for advice and support, not just a commercial shopping day. Tegan has created a ‘Marketplace’ section of the expo where she will subsidise a portion of stalls so that smaller businesses and organisations can have the chance to exhibit. If she won the grant it would do towards offsetting the cost of these stalls.

And finally was Renata from Newcastle Ghost Tours. Renata leads tours through the area with a spooky historical twist! She finds that her tours engage locals and visitors alike and they are enjoyed by people who generally wouldn’t be interested in history. She’s written two books on local ghost stories and they’re both almost sold out. She’s started writing a third and would like money to help with print production costs and to get some external help with photography and proofing.

After listened to three fantastic pitches it was time for deliberation.

Finally our judges emerged and the votes were counted.

One of our regular guest board members, Jacqui had the honour of announcing the winner…

Feedback Organics!

The Awesome board felt that David’s business is scalable, good for the community and good for the Earth.

Thanks again to all of our wonderful board members and finalists. August Awesome was another opportunity for us to see what incredible projects are happening in the community.