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Welcome to the very first edition of The Footpath Library Newsletter. We will be distributing our newsletter once a quarter to update you on our activities and provide stories that inspire, entertain and inform.
This newsletter also marks our 10 year anniversary as Sarah, the Founder explains in our short video.
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Chatting with P.M. Newton about crime, quirks and cricket
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We recently had the delight to chat with author P.M. Newton, one of our Sydney-based ambassadors. Her first novel, The Old School, won the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award and the Asher Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the Indie Award for Debut Fiction and the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. With a new novel due to be released early in 2014, we thought we’d catch up with Pam and find out a little about the new novel, her views on crime and the current Ashes series.
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Wanted: Young Epic! poets. Entries now open.
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We're thrilled to announce a national poetry competition for primary and secondary school students to celebrate our 10th anniversary. To enter students just need to submit a poem expressing the theme of Courage. Poems can be traditional verse, a visual or graphic representation of a poem or performance poetry such as rap rhyme or song. There are great prizes up for grabs so help us get the word out so we can discover a new rising star in Australian poetry.
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Welcome to our newest Board members
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Our Board, otherwise known fondly as The Park Bench, is a team of passionate and dedicated individuals including our Chair, Barbara McKellar and our Founder Sarah Garnett.
We are delighted to welcome two new Board members to our team, Bob Allo and Rhoni Stokes. We also want to acknowledge the amazing work of Shane McLachlan who has stepped down as a Director after many years of service. Shane will continue his wonderful work managing the Tuesday mobile service in Sydney and acting as the media contact for the organisation.
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Our 10th birthday celebrations
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In November, our Sydney mobile service celebrated it's 10th birthday with all our regular customers. We were delighted that Joe, the man who Sarah gave that first book to ten years ago (now a dear friend), was there to celebrate – and he was really chuffed!
A great night, thanks to everyone who contributed!
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Just six per cent out of the 105,000 people in Australia that experience homelessness are sleeping rough.
The others are often hidden with temporary accommodation in specialist homelessness services, boarding houses, hotels or motels, or sleeping on the floor or the couch at someone else’s place.
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Should I give money to homeless people on the street?
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A question that often leads to confusion and some debate is; should you give a homeless person money? Whether to give money can lead to inner turmoil, on one side there is the instinct to alleviate suffering but on the other hand there is the concern that by giving you could be supporting self-destructive activities. Then there is the argument, that we have no right to judge how a homeless person chooses to spend the money given to them.
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Not so random acts of kindness
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We are often humbled by the acts of kindness everyday people extend to us and our clients. This year alone we've been given swags, winter pants, hand knitted beanies, and reading glasses for our clients.
The BNY Mellon Team raised over $10,000 in a charity bike ride and most recently Davidson High's book drive managed to raise $1,000 and give us 300 books!
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Find us, follow us, share us, help us...
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You can help us by donating books, knitwear, time or money
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Have a comment or an idea for a story you would like to share?
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Thank you to our amazing supporters
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