‘Youth Street Newcastle’ Wins October Grant

‘Youth Street Newcastle’ Wins October Grant


Last Thursday evening, Awesome Newcastle awarded October’s no-strings-attached $1,000 grant.

The thinkers, changemakers and ideaspeople of Newcastle sent us a rich variety of quirky, funny and interesting applications and the worthy bunch was narrowed down to just three finalists.

Our board members, accompanied by Jess Shuwalow of Rethink Financial Group, Donna Burrell of Liquid Colour Design School and James Dampney of Big Mobile, gathered at Cazador in Hunter Street Mall to listen to our finalists tell us why they should win the $1,000 grant.

A longtime amateur theatre and film actor, Rohan Everingham is also passionate about contributing to the wider community of art, music and events. Everingham created Igig, a smartphone app that allows the user to find out about the evening’s music events across the region at the tap of a button. Everingham said the grant money would contribute to building a website to support his music directory app.

A highly respected veteran of the art community in Newcastle, Simone Sheridan of Street Art Walking told the board about the many inspired street art sites spread across the city, completed by local, national and even international artists. Sheridan said the $1,000 grant money would help her update her Street Art Walking map to encourage more local and tourism interest in the works on the walls of buildings throughout the region.

Kelcie Rausch volunteers for Youth Street Newcastle, and provides young people from 10 years up with a fun, safe place to hang out, make friends and have fun. Young people can head along to Youth Street on Saturday and develop their skills in skating, scooting, surfing, sports, dancing, art and performing arts. Rausch and her fellow volunteers aim to provide a place where teens can develop their skills and build their confidence.

She said the grant money would be put towards providing her ‘crew’ with surfboards and art supplies to keep them active, creative and having fun, and her wish was granted – Rausch was voted the winner of Awesome Newcastle’s $1,000 October grant.

Each of the 10 board members gave the grant money from their own pockets and there are no strings attached. All grant applications from previous months roll over into the next month, so no previous applications will ever expire.

We look forward to hearing more from Rausch as she and Youth Street Newcastle continue to make awesome happen in Newcastle.