My mantra for this month: ‘I cannot do this alone, I need the help of a crowd’.
It is true in life, and it is the core of the Bowerbird business. I’ve been busy making things these past 18 months, but what I’ve really made are communities. For every job, each step of the way, I include people, involve them. As with young children, most of us like a job to do. I once heard a story, that if someone is depressed, the best thing to do for them is ask them to make you a cup of tea.
In being useful, in the doing, a simple task, there is enjoyment.
Thank you to all who offered gifts for the Bowerbird Block Party raffle. My heart skipped, and sang. I could hug you all, even Sam, the Carlton supporter.
For those who cannot attend the Block Party but would like to contribute with a raffle ticket (& thank you Clare Murayama who dropped-off $20 last Saturday for 5 tix) the easiest way to do it is either find me and give me the cash, or transfer money to this account:
First Orange Pty Ltd (trading as Bowerbird Gardens)
06 3143 1061 9265 (put your name on transaction description)
Tickets are $5 each, of 5 for $20. Please send me a text (0425 005 531) to let me know. I can appreciate there is a lot of trust in this transaction, but again, this is the ethos of my business. Trust and fairness. Without this, what I do and the way I do it would never work.
All money raised will go toward a project with Indigenous school children. I will publish the final tally. I will fully document what the project is, and how it is applied, and will seek media to spread the news. It is a tangible example of one community coming together to help another - less advantaged - community. There is no politics involved in this. It is an exercise in cooperation, in giving.
Now, the fun bit, the PRIZES! (drum roll, please….)
TWO NIGHTS ACCOMMODATION in a four-bedroom beach house overlooking St Andrews Beach golf course on the tip of the Mornington Peninsula. Donated kindly by Sandra McKay. Sandra is a friend from my newspaper days. We sat diagonally opposite each other for a while at The Age in the Spencer Street days, and I’ve always been very fond of her. Since returning to Melbourne I’ve bumped into her at the footy, and remember once taking her boy out for kick-to-kick. She is a wonderful woman, always smiling, strong and determined, a gentle heart. She barracks for Richmond, which helps. (Although I also keep tabs on her two nephews, who are key position stars-in-the-making at North and Carlton). Thank you Sandra.
TWO NIGHT STAY in a two-bedroom Deluxe Holiday Unit at the Inverloch Big4 Holiday Park. Donated kindly by Adrian Edwards. I went to school with Adi, and all our year who graduated catch-up regularly, in a very casual event organised by a mutual friend. I sent a group email to this cohort a few weeks ago, and Adi’s immediate reply: “Congrats mate. Happy to donate a weekend’s accommodation for the raffle Duges.” That’s Adi, matter-of-fact, gets-things-done, helps out, generous to others, always with a wry smile. I owe him a beer. I know his twin brother is a Tiger, so that’s good enough for me. Thanks Adrian, I could hug you.
BOTTLE OF VEUVE CLICQUOT CHAMPAGNE. French bubbly. This is wonderful. This was dropped at my doorstep by a woman I’ve never met, but who could be one of my several guardian angels. On social media (Facebook) she is always so encouraging of what I do, so supportive. It means much to me. All of us appreciate some acknowledgement. It is such a gift to give it out. It shows such generosity, such confidence in one’s character. Her name is Jennifer Berry. I’m not even sure how our world’s met (we have one mutual friend on FB, Corrie Perkin), but they did and I am all the richer for this. She’s a Geelong fan, bless her heart, but one of her boys is a Tiger, the little ripper. Thank you Jenny, you are a treasure.
(Must mention at this point all gifts are transferable, and I’d be very happy to, etc…)
BOTTLE OF WINE. Not yet sure if it’s a red or a white but it’ll be a nice drop. It’s from Pippa Cox, the art teacher at Armadale PS and our eldest boys’ teacher in prep and Grade 1. Pippa is a sweetheart, and she’s always been so encouraging of what I’ve done at our boys’ school. With her help, and that of others, in little but incredibly significant ways, I’ve been able to transform parts of the landscape of that school in very creative and imaginative ways. It is important. It is not about ego or money. It is about improving the welfare and experiences of and for children. I owe Pippa a bottle of wine (she came and helped clean bricks for a job I did at Nelson Street Kindergarten in Balaclava), but this is the sort of woman she is: she donates the wine! Thank you Pippa, you the best!
VILLAGE CINEMA MOVIE GIFT CARD. To the value of $50. Annie Exell arrived on the front doorstep the other week and gave me the card. This is for the raffle, she said. How incredible is that! I know Annie from my mid-20s, and mutual friends, and remember always a ski trip she organised, and a few years ago at a local pub I was admiring a young boy and his woolknit Richmond jumper and it turns out his mum was Annie and they named him Dougie! Worlds entwine. Annie also gave me some choice chocolates and Bunnings gift cards for facilitating her husband snaring a ticket to the GF. He’s a tiger, their two boys are tigers. Annie, you are so very generous. Thank you.
LORD OF THE FRIES gift vouchers. Have five of these to give away, each worth $50. There’s an outlet at Flinders Street station and if you have time before your train arrives, their chips are the bomb! Thank you Sam Koronczyk for this gift. I know Sam through our local primary school, although I had met his daughter earlier at the whole swimming lesson thing.. She’s lovely. Sam is a great hands-on dad, always doing the drop-off and pick-up, always open to a chat, talks with a smile. He’s an avid Carlton fan, who travels regularly to interstate games, who has football under his skin. He would arrive at school so heavy-shouldered on a Monday for most of this footy season. I was so glad for him when they changed coaches and started winning. A weight lifted. There is hope. Thank you Sam, you are the man.
REDBUBBLE gift vouchers. Three, each to the value of $40. Chris Rees, my dear and valued friend in Hobart, a very talented graphic designer (he created the Bowerbird logo, created the Block Party flyer for free), my confidant and co-creator of a community-building football blog www.tigertigerburningbright.com.au (will always maintain we played a valuable role in turning the fortunes of our hitherto woebegone footy team), an artist, a wonderful dad, admired by so many of us. I am so fortunate Chris came into my life. With others, we’ve created a really vibrant and engaging and accepting and inclusive football community. He’s a tiger, and a lovely man. Thank you Chris.
A POGO STICK. Offered by Claire Heaney who I knew of at first through Cheryl Critchley, who knows the Nettletons who I used to milk cows for in Orbost, and Siobhan Dunckley who I met through our local kindergarten and school, and, oh, it’s complicated. But I met Claire the other week when I gave a talk about the ‘reverse economy’ and she lives in Richmond and is a Tiger and I offered to ride my bike to Tigertown to pick up the pogo stick but she says she’ll drop it on the doorstep in the next day or two. Thank you Claire, you’re a good sort, as they say!
TWO BOTTLES OF WINE. A gift from my father. May be of variable quality. He is a retired engineer. He has no idea what I do and how I go about it, but has always been supportive (so long as I make him a cup of coffee when he pops over). I love him. He’s a good natured man, fair-minded, even though he barracks for Essendon. Thank you dad.
A HOMEMADE CAKE. I’ve no idea what it will be, nor the ingredients used (GF, anyone?), but I know it’ll be good! It will come with care and love and passion, from Liz Lopez, another friend from past journalism days (although curiously we were passing colleagues). But I have a sense of kindred spirit with Liz. We keep bumping into each other. On a street corner in Redfern, Sydney. A house Christmas party of hers in Collingwood. Then reconnecting on social media. She was one to encourage me to start a business doing what I’m doing. She contracted me on my first private job. I built her a garden. I met her parents, her sister, her neighbours (still have some edging bricks they gave me), all the people who walked by. Her garden started conversations. I’ve been having an ongoing conversation with Liz for all my adult life. I reckon she’d screw up her nose at football, and that’s all the more reason to love her. Thank you Liz.
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Thanks also to Dan O’Grady (we’ve known each other since about Grade 3 of primary school), Clint Evans (went to secondary school together) and Jeff Gooden (we play Monday night ‘old farts’ hockey together), and probably a few others, who’ve also offered very generous gifts, but I’ve decided to limit it to 10, and told them to come along and make merry and buy some raffle tickets if they can.
Hope to see many on Saturday.
I will need some ‘raffle ticket sellers’. I have a few people in mind.