Art... not Garfunkel

Art 'n stuff.

The art from the Goodwill Centre arrived back in Australia, you may remember a small project we undertook to take the opportunity to show the children of our local community what it was like for children in Cambodia.  They exchanged artwork and pre printed postcards.

Toni was asked by the Principal to present the art to the children and explain some of the intricacies. It was well received and we'll continue with a similar project next year.

A few photos of Toni with the kids at Nymboida School

Mountain Bike Ride Donations

We had a social ride of local Northern NSW mountain bikers at our place the other week.  Several regular faces showed up but numbers were down on previous years, probably because of the hail and thunderstorm the day before.  The ground was so dry that it soaked right in but many assumed it was a no goer.  Those that did show got to enjoy the trails and they all gave generously spontaneously to the fund. We were, as always, humbled by their generosity.  In particular, Geoff and Ryan Gilchrist (Jaye was out ill) Saul and Bregje Thompson, Tony Broderick and Deb Repschlager  You can read more about the ride here

Ryan Gilchrist , followed closely by Dad, Geoff

Local girl, Shiann

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and the work continues

and the work continues

While we have been busy fund raising, it's easy sometimes to forget what it's all about, so just a quick reminder.

These are some of the people we help out with small donations of food to allow them to send their children to the Goodwill Centre.  (users who receive this update via email will need to go to the website to view the slideshow)

Other projects underway include the paying of the wages of two teachers, one at Romdual School and the 1/2 the wages for the English teacher at Goodwill Centre.  We try to prioritise education and the access to education as one of the basics of what we are doing. Hopefully this will allow the people we help to improve their lives further in the future.

We are also sponsoring one student,  through University in Sihanoukville (English & Tourism)

Sok Mong (centre)

and another through University (Medicine) in Phnom Penh

Piseth

Regular Donations

We can only do this because of the generous donations from everyone in the community.  Just recently we have had two more full time donors come on on board with regular donation, Dr Andrew Black from the Bulgrarr Health Centre in Grafton and Kim Lavery from Nymboida  This is added to three other Nymboida locals who have been so generous with their donations.  By making regular smaller donations it allows us a degree of certainty to plan and commit to various projects.  If you would like to make small regular donations through your bank (very easy to set up) please visit the Donations page for bank details and the procedure to follow.

Call for Volunteers to Help at local Fun Run

We have been approached by one of the organisers of the Jacaranda Fun Run to help field a few volunteers. Volunteers won't have to run. ha ha ! but will be needed to "man" the timing tent, hand out water to competitors on the course etc.  In return they will provide us with a donation.  If anyone would like to volunteer, we'd love to hear from them, as the more people we can field for the event, the more money they donate to our worthy cause.  The Fun Run is part of the Clarence Valley Jacaranda Festival.  A huge thanks to the wonderful Kim Lavery for volunteering and her continual help is genuine and appreciated.


Of course if you want to participate, that would be awesome as well.  You can read more about the Fun Run here

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Fund Raising Charity Garage Sale

Done and dusted !

It went well and although the numbers were down a little on two years ago, we have raised about $800 with a few last minute sales still trickling in from some of the left over items.  Thanks to our biggest customer, this sale and the last one two years ago, Daniel from Glenn's Ck Rd (I promise not to tell Sophie)

Viola, Sunny and Letisha trying out the walking machine !

Snapping up the bargains

and a link here to heaps of other photo's

Thank-you's

There are so many people to thank and if we've missed anyone, apologies.

• Helping man the stall: the wonderful Kim, Jenny, Lilith, Viola and Georgie.
• Helping set up the day before: Jenny D and Ruth and many others.
• Cleaning up: Laena, Ruth and Janelle
• Musicians: Sebastian, Clayton and Laena on drums !
• The Clarence Valley Council for allowing us to get rid of some of the items that no one would take
• The Daily Examiner for doing the story on the sale
• The Hall Committee for waving the Hall Fee for all our fund raising events so far

and a huge thank you to everyone who donated their treasures to be sold and everyone who attended.

Subscribe by Email

For those of you who receive this via email, you may miss some of the extra content that can be seen on the website.  You can visit the website (blog) by going here

If you subscribe to the blog, you will automatically receive an email advising you an update to this web page.  You can subscribe by entering your email address on the right hand side, in the "Subscribe by Email" section

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"Garage Sale" in the local Newspaper

"Garage Sale" in the local Newspaper

Newspaper Article

Toni did a recent phone interview for the local Newspaper with an article that made it in on Tuesday 7 Oct.

You can access the full article here  Thanks to the Daily Examiner for that.

Just a minor change, the handsome fellow is not Trevor but a lovely Irishman who helps out in Cambodia. The photo was taken on the steps of the Romdual School which is the small rural school  in Cambodia where local Nymboidian's Richard and Jenny are paying the wages of the second teacher.  I have included the original photo below:

TL: Camra (local Khmer translator), Toni and Audrey
BL: Sarin (head teacher), Ciaran and Donna

Here's a link to an album of photo's from a visit to Romdual School on the Ream River for those interested,
and hopefully the fund raiser will be a great day this Sunday 13 October

Call for Volunteers to Help at local Fun Run

We have been approached by one of the organisers of the Jacaranda Fun Run to help field a few volunteers.  Volunteers won't have to run. ha ha ! but will be needed to "man" the timing tent, hand out water to competitors on the course etc.  In return they will provide us with a donation.  If anyone would like to volunteer, we'd love to hear from them, as the more people we can field for the event, the more money they donate to our worthy cause.  The Fun Run is part of the Clarence Valley Jacaranda Festival.


Of course if you want to participate, that would be awesome as well.  You can read more about the Fun Run here

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quick thank you

Garage Sale - 13 October (update)

We have had some awesome support for the Garage (Jumble) Sale coming up at the Nymboida Hall on 13 October but let the donations of bric-a-brac and no longer wanted items around the house flow in.  You can drop them down the hall on the Saturday 12 Oct in the afternoon where I will be setting up or contact me via the Contacts page on this site or phone on 6649 4263

Donations

Interesting this school holidays we had a random Dad and Son from Brisbane turn up at our place as they were looking for somewhere to ride their mountain bikes.  He had been camping with his Son at Nymboida NP. For those of you who are unaware we have a  reasonably extensive trail network on our property that you can read about here if you're interested.   After explaining the trails were on our private property he was crestfallen.  We said why not and allowed him and his Son to ride and invited him to come back this way again if he wanted to.  He was taken with our place and when Toni started talking to him about the big pile of items on our porch, explaining what they were for he kindly donated $10... Not a huge amount but for a  total stranger, amazing... so thank you Craig Humphrey from Brisbane !

The second one was a random email from a friend, Jaye Gilchrist who has donated several times in the past and did so again today... a huge thank you to Jaye and the Gilchrist Family


Our Donations page is here

Finances

With the complications of keeping track of finances via Spreadsheets getting the better of us, we have finally decided to move the finances to a bookkeeping program, we settled on a FOSS (Free and Open Source) program, called GnuCash.  We will publish accounts every 6 months online for viewing, along with bank statements which are received every six months .  If anyone does want more updated information we have no trouble providing that to them just contact us via the Contacts page

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