It was a scorching Thursday evening when our distinguished yet slightly sweaty Awesome Newcastle board gathered together (along with a few special guests) for our November board meeting at Cazador in Newcastle Mall.

Alex O’Hara, owner of Cazador fulfilled our November guest board member position, while Sam Robinson of LKS Quaero Consulting and Denis Mamo, visiting Sydney creative, also filled in for absentees on the evening.

It has been growing more and more difficult to narrow down a top three with an ever-growing pot of awesome applications rolling in through the months. We invited Alissa and Fiona from HUNTERhunter, James Chapman from Tantrum Theatre and Sean Bell of The Design Kids along to show us how each would make awesome happen in Newcastle with $1,000 cash, no strings attached.

Alissa and Fiona shared their story of creating HUNTERhunter, a website that acts as a cultural roadmap for Newcastle and the Hunter. Alissa and Fiona personally cover stories about small bars, cafes and restaurants, fashion and homewares as well as profiling Novocastrians going their own way. They said they would use the money to go towards giving their website a facelift.

Sean Bell is a young graphic designer who has brought The Design Kids to Newcastle with huge success. Heralded as one of the most successful chapters in the country, #TDKTuesday is all about creating a valuable link between budding designers and industry professionals. Bell said he would use the money to continue running the free event, which takes place twice a month in hotspots around Newcastle.

If there was a hint of nervousness about James Chapman before his turn to tell the board about his awesome idea, it evaporated in an instant as he began to tell the group about a play he’d love to bring to Newcastle. Dealing with the black dog in the room, Chapman hopes to bring some much-needed attention to male mental illness with his production. With all the charisma and authenticity of a trained performer, he discussed how the $1,000 would go towards helping fund the production in a town where most productions are unfunded and rife with out-of-pocket expenses.

With a majority vote, James was ecstatic to win November’s Awesome Newcastle grant, walking away with $1,000 cash, no-strings-attached, to bring his idea to life. Watch this space to learn more about James’ play!

All entries from previous months don’t expire, and we look forward to receiving another round of entrants to add to the mix across the holidays.

See you next year for Awesome Newcastle 2016!