THE BYRON SHIRE ECHO Advertising & news enquiries: Mullumbimby 02 6684 1777 Byron Bay 02 6685 5222 Fax 02 6684 1719 editor@echo.net.au adcopy@echo.net.au Available early Tuesday at: http://www.echo.net.au VOLUME 22 #50 TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2008 22,700 copies every week Printed on 100% recycled paper
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A special place for kids at Art Expo
A F FA I R S
More cooks needed to share the broth for soup kitchen Story & photo Eve Jeffery
Liam Veselis at age 10 is already a seasoned artist. He has been drawing and painting since a very young age with encouragement from his family. Entering competitions has brought him many awards. Last year, to accept the Clearview Award for a story and painting about his granddad, he won a trip to Sydney and $1000 for his school. At this time of year Liam is preparing for the Ocean Shores Arts Expo held annually in August. This year’s theme is ‘Belonging’ and for
the kids section there is a subtitle: ‘My Special Place’. Liam said he already has an idea for his painting. ‘The Ocean Shores Arts Expo has helped encourage me. When it’s on it gets me painting again.’ His mother Karen said, ‘It’s a huge inspiration to Liam. Usually kids’ art is separate; it’s a great opportunity for young children to see their artwork along side adults’ art.’ Karen said Liam keenly watches the art demonstrations at the Expo then tries out the techniques at home.
‘You don’t usually get to see somebody paint, even in school. It’s the highlight of the show for him.’ Previous local themes of the Expo inspired Liam to sketch outside for the ďŹ rst time. His message to other kids is, ‘Keep going! It’s a great thing. I like to see all your artworks. Have a go.’ For more on kids’ art at the Expo, phone Colin Tarbox on 6680 2456 or check the website www.osartexpo. com . The Expo is sponsored by our local Lions Club and Murwillumbah TAFE.
Council objects to Woolies DA changes Byron Shire Council voted 8-1 last week, Cr Lazarus opposed, for Council ofďŹ cers to prepare a submission to the Department of Planning on Woolworths DA modifications for its proposed Mullumbimby building. While not as strong as local protesters might like, the submission will raise objections to truck deliveries
on Sundays and public holidays and address ‘the issues of clause 45 of the Byron LEP, residential amenity, access, building design and Station Street upgrading, traffic and request Woolworths to consider an upgrade of Prince Street’. Council has also authorised the General Manager and the Director of Planning, Development and
Environment Services to ‘continue discussions already commenced with Woolworths and the Department of Planning with the objective of redesigning the project to be more sympathetic with the character of the town of Mullumbimby and with better pedestrian connectivity to the existing business centre’. Council continued on page 2
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Kris and Ian Campbell, pictured below, have been serving it up for almost ďŹ ve years and the guests at the Mullumbimby Soup Kitchen have been loving it. Kris, who started the soup kitchen because she felt there was a genuine need for it, has provided about 6000 meals since she opened the doors. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a very popular service,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; says Ian. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We get an average of 30 or so people a week come in to visit us, have a chat and get a home cooked meal. For some people this is the only meal in the week that they eat at a table with other people, so there is a huge social aspect as well.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; When The Echo visited the soup kitchen last week there were over 50 guests and volunteers, all enjoying a won-
derful meal created by Kris. With the numbers growing it is becoming an increasing load for Kris who also works full time and recently when she got a bad dose of the ďŹ&#x201A;u, had to drag herself out of bed to cook up the weekly meal. It is getting to the point where she needs to share the cooking and is hoping that she can find some other cooks to lighten the load a bit. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We are in desperate need,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; says Kris. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The food doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to be complicated just nutritious and tasty. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a commercial kitchen so the meals have to be prepared off site and delivered to the kitchen, and they need to be meat free to comply with health regulations.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; The optimum would be for ďŹ ve individuals or groups of cooks to work a six month roster, each group taking
turns to prepare and serve a meal. There may be people out there who would like to cook but cannot afford the ingredients so Kris and Ian would also like to match up people who have access to produce or who can donate money, with people who have the time and energy to do the cooking. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;We have wonderful supporters in Santos, Brunswick Health Foods, Coffee Oasis, Olive Grove and Sol Breads who donate food and supplies each week, but we would love some cooking volunteers. We sadly miss our Marianne who passed away recently. Another of our cooks moved to Tassy so we are really short on help.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; If you would like to help out the soup kitchen you can phone Kris on 6680 1229 or donations can be left at either of the Echo ofďŹ ces.