Coal Creek chases prizes
All smiles: Rowena Ashley, Coal Creek co-ordinator.
COAL Creek Community Park and Museum is once again finalists in the Tidy Town awards with two nominations for 2012.
The park’s Sustainability and Food Network Centre and Literary Festival have both received the accolade.
Park co-ordinator Rowena Ashley is very happy with the recognition.
“It’s fantastic,” she said.
“We go up against some big projects in when we nominate for these awards and it shows how we are performing to a high standard in a small population.
“These other projects have many more resources then us but we are doing just as good of a job.”
The Sustainability and Food Network Centre and the Growlightly idea grew from a concern about global and environmental trends.
The centre was established to showcase sustainability initiatives within the region and the veggie boxes were an initiative of local produce providers who wanted local people buying local product.
“Not only do we use the centre as a place for the volunteers to pack the veggie boxes but it is open as an education centre for people to learn about being sustainable,” Rowena said.
School groups are also taken through the centre and taught about sustainability and compare today’s process with those many years ago.
“Our aim is to educate the benefits of sustainable communities and inspire more regions to adopt and establish the concept of a food network program similar to the Coal Creek model,” Rowena said.
The other nominated event, the Literary Festival, began five years ago with a collective of community members who were authors, poets, writers and members of books clubs who wanted to see a festival the celebrated their craft.
A workshop with experts in the writing field is part of the festival as well as panel discussions and awards for writing pieces.
A gala night of theatre and music performances compliments the festival with proceeds going to a nominated charity each year.
This is the only Literary Festival in South Gippsland allowing direct contact with local and high profile writers.
Winners will be announced on September 22 at a ceremony in Mornington.
Short URL: /?p=4400
Posted by 
