TO some, boxing may seem a strange road to travel in search of peace. But that is exactly the destination where the lessons in life handed out by boxing trainer Ron Smith can lead. The Mt Eliza-based former professional boxer admits to making mistakes while growing up, but says he learned from those to be a better man. Now 71, Smith is an advocate for peace, harmony and self-respect; attributes he passes on to people of all ages attending the Mt Eliza Boxing Centre he runs with his wife Sharyn. The philosophies espoused by Smith resonated so much with Jack…
Author: Keith Platt
SHEREE Marris submerges herself in her work. An outspoken advocate for the Mornington Peninsula, she concentrates on its rarely seen and hidden attractions. To actually see Marris at work requires some beach accessories, but not the ones advertised in style magazines or found hanging in trendy boutiques. An aquatic scientist, Marris is more usually billed as a “marine educator” and has long promoted the attractions that live under the waters of Port Phillip. Marris has been widely published and exposed on TV and radio in her quest to highlight the unusual and unexpected life forms that dwell beneath the bay’s…
AT an early age Melissa Jane found solace in poetry. In more recent years she found herself penning songs. But it was not until she experienced a personal tragedy that the words and music fused into a completed, recorded song. Jane’s Happy Birthday in Heaven was written to help people deal with grief after the death of a loved one. Specifically, it is designed to bring solace and comfort on the birth date of that loved one, although Jane’s friends have suggested it could also be played and sung at funerals. Sadly, the words and music came to the Frankston…
HAVING fast internet speeds at home is not good news for everyone, especially if you are a sugar glider in Mt Eliza. Inspections made before the rollout of NBN cabling at Mt Eliza have revealed families of sugar gliders living in Telstra’s underground pits. Wildlife experts believe the small nocturnal marsupials have been forced to seek emergency accommodation because of a lack of suitable hollows in trees. The sociable sugar gliders generally sleep in family groups and have found direct access into the plastic-lined pits through white conduit running down power poles. The problem facing the sugar gliders is that…
LEADERS from six major religions went to a mosque in Langwarrin to explain the role their faith was taking to promote peace. President of Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of Australia Inam-ul-Haq Kauser said “the majority” of Muslims were peaceful and that terrorist attacks had nothing to do with Islam. “There are only a handful of [Muslims] who are troublemakers, who are creating the whole trouble,” Imam Kauser said in his keynote address at the Conference of World Religions at the Bait-ul-Salam (House of Peace) Mosque on Sunday 29 November. The theme of the conference – attended by 350 community leaders, including…