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Telephone: 97651169
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Wonderful Women’s Day
The Boyup Brook Town Hall was abuzz on Friday, June 26th for the 2009 Women’s Day. Over 200 women flocked to the event entitled “Women Leading Change.”
The event, coordinated by the Boyup Brook Telecentre in conjunction with the Blackwood Basin Group, attracted women from as far away as Perth and Walpole as well as surrounding South West towns for a day filled with fun, food, laughter and inspiring guest speakers. The crowd spilled out the front doors upon entry, eagerly anticipating the day ahead.
Chair of the Boyup Brook Telecentre, and Blackwood Basin Group employee, Nerilee Boshammer, began proceedings with an official welcome and introduction to the ever-hilarious Jon Doust who was Master of Ceremonies for the day. Doust had the hall in fits of laughter with his anecdotes on life, IGA stores and knobs of garlic.
Local Boyup Brook Physiotherapist, Helen Hack, got the participants moving to music and forming groups with new people and encouraging introductions amongst new friends.
Kirsten Skraha, the 2009 RIRDC WA Rural Woman of the Year, was the first of the three guest speakers of the day. With her catch-cry “Think Global, Act Local”, Kirsten encouraged everyone to believe that they can make a difference to global issues such as climate change. Every action that individuals do to help the environment, such as recycling, or turning off a light switch, is often replicated by others in their communities and neighbouring towns. When all of these individual actions are viewed on a larger scale, it really can make an impact.
Gardening expert and ABC Radio celebrity Sabrina Hahn spoke of her experience in bringing a project in the Kimberley region to life. The Lombadina project began with two women initiating an idea, doing all the legwork and inviting Sabrina to help them bring it to fruition, all without Government funding. The members of this remote community, including school children, established a garden and within three months, they were eating produce from their garden and a sense of pride was instilled. “Change comes from the grass roots” Hahn said, and continued with the inspirational words “Never think that you can’t make a change.”
The final speaker of the day was Ann Langley. This amazing lady was awarded the 2007 James D Wolfensohn Award for International person with Multiple Sclerosis. She is a strong advocate for people with disabilities and began her speech detailing her disgust in there not being a wheelchair accessible bus in this area. Her visit to the region has instigated press releases regarding this matter and it is surely not the last we will hear of the issue. Ann described her role in initiating a transport system for the disabled and frail aged in Logan, an outer region of Brisbane. The service now caters for over 7000 clients.
The day presented many opportunities for women to eat, wander around the various stalls and importantly network with other women.
Many raffles were drawn, with the feature prize being the piece of artwork used as the logo for the event. Created by the BBG’s Kathe Purvis, the winner of this prize was Helen Turner.
Chairperson, Nerilee Boshammer, concluded the day with the news that funding has been sourced to conduct another two Women’s Days in nearby towns, later this year. This was welcome news to the crowd who thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment and spirit of the day.
