Last night we celebrated our final Awesome Newcastle of the year in the beer garden of the Young Street Hotel. As is the tradition, our End-of-Year event was open to the public, and we brought back three fabulous finalists from earlier in the year to pitch their (more polished) ideas for a second time.

Lauren stepped into Alex’s big shoes and hosted the night (we miss you Alex!), and along with our permanent board members we welcomed guest board members Tim Askew, a past Awesome Newcastle board member, Karen from Ghost Fungus Tours, one of our previous winners, and Simon Toal from SKALA Environmental.

Our returning finalists were Zahli-Star Sampson of Starborn Female Fighters Network, David Griffen of The Novocastrian Independent Art Guide and Laura Swadling of Swadling Strength.

Zahli-Star went first. She’s the 17-year-old boxer behind Starborn Female Fighters Network, a free, supportive network giving female boxers across NSW more visibility and a better shot at finding fair fights, sparring partners and connections. What we didn’t know until the end of the night was that Zahli-Star was meant to be in hospital with a broken wrist. Instead she decided to push ahead and pitch to Awesome Newcastle, holding the microphone with a broken wrist without any of us realising. That tells you just about everything you need to know about her grit! She only pitched to us last month, and she’s already well on the way to the event she has planned for next March.

David went next. He first pitched The Novocastrian to us back in February: the grassroots, community-focused art guide he’s built singlehandedly to make Newcastle’s creative culture easier to find and engage with. Since then he’s kept building, and The Novocastrian has grown steadily towards the goals he shared with us earlier in the year. You can see it for yourself this Friday, 6 November, when The Novocastrian’s Year One exhibition opens at Wester Gallery from 6pm to 8pm.

Our final finalist was Laura. She first pitched to us in May. She’s a mum and a pre and post natal fitness coach who runs bootcamp style sessions at schools in lower socio-economic areas, helping mums get access to fitness without the financial barriers. Laura has also come a long way towards the goals she shared with us in May.

All three finalists have moved their ideas forward since they first pitched to us, which made for a daunting task for the board. They discussed and deliberated and at last the votes were cast, and it could hardly have been closer. Starborn won by just one vote! We invited Karen from Ghost Fungus Tours, a past winner herself, to the stage to hand the $1,000 of no-strings-attached cash to Zahli-Star. Congratulations, Zahli-Star! We can’t wait to see Starborn’s event come together in March and to see more female fighters across the region in the ring.

Thank you to David and Laura as well for championing your great ideas for a second time this year. Please stay in touch and let us know how you go in the new year!

A big thank you to the Young Street Hotel for having us again this year. We first came to Young Street for our End-of-Year event back in November 2023, and it’s been the home of Awesome Newcastle ever since. Three years on, we couldn’t ask for a better spot for a drink, a yarn and $1,000 worth of good ideas.

Thank you to our board, our guest board members, our finalists and the whole community for another amazing year of Awesome Newcastle. Have a great holiday, start dreaming up your next big idea, and we’ll see you in February!