Lucky for us, The Edwards again accommodated our gregarious gang for February’s Awesome Newcastle. This month we found ourselves in their spacious and delicious beer garden out back.

Our board members and finalists arrived, including our guest board members. This month we were happy to have Don Magin of Magin Consulting, Jacqui Dailey of Measured Marketer and Stephen Thomas as our guest board members. They jaunted into the space to meet and greet with our regulars and also our finalists for this month.

This month’s finalists was an eclectic group of gals representing everything from textiles to toddlers to TROG cancer research.

Tanya Carlyle went first. She brought with her Carol, a breast cancer survivor. Tanya is from TROG Cancer Research, and last year they held their inaugural ART4TROG exhibition at Newcastle Art Gallery. Many artists donated their artwork with all money from the sales going towards vital cancer research. They are now working to raise money for the 2017 event.

Next Anne Kempton from Timeless Textiles spoke about her Deeper Voice of Textiles project. In this project men work with artists Tim Johnson and Graham Wilson where they can create sculptural artworks using tools and skills associated with their specific trades. These results will be installed in a three-day public exhibition. The individual sculptures will be displayed in the participating local business that created them.

Our final finalist of the evening was Christy White and Catharina Howman from Firstchance. They run a Little Ones playgroup in Hamilton. This playgroup supports families who have a child with a disability or development. While such programs were supported by the government, with the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the government will no longer support them. This playgroup gives hope back to parents and carers, building their capacity to support their child. The two are currently looking for an alternative source of funding to enable families to be supported by an early childhood educator & family worker within a community setting.

After painful deliberation the results were in, close call as per usual. We are very excited to congratulate Anne Kempton from Timeless Textiles as this month’s Awesome Newcastle Winner! Kempton will be using the money to promote businesses within the Newcastle area with an illustrated map. We can’t wait to see the projects!

We’re so excited to learn more about the Deeper Voice of Textiles project, and we hope to stay in touch with all finalists. Keep in mind that these applications never expire, and you very well could be invited back again!