THE inaugural Flinders Fringe Festival – a three-day creative arts festival to celebrate the diversity of the Mornington Peninsula’s art scene, will be held 17-19 February. Artistic director Melissa Jackson is one of the instigators of the event, along with a team of artists who aim to showcase local established and emerging artists. “Following a tough two years for the arts, the festival is set to showcase and support local artisans and performers with a new platform to share their craft,” Jackson said. Shen said there would be more than 30 events and a mixture of free and ticketed activities…
Author: Liz Bell
FIVE years ago, Julie Hooper’s life changed in a split second, as her body was crushed by a sweeper truck that had rolled out of control. In a coma for two weeks, Hooper woke to doctors telling her she was lucky to be alive, but that with a snapped collar bone, broken ribs and vertebrae, some brain damage plus a pelvis smashed in six places, the then 45-year-old had a long journey of recovery ahead of her. Now, at the age of 50, Hooper has just won the road race and the time trial in the recent Women’s National Paralympics…
PEARCEDALE visual artist Janice Mills says transposing the colours, shapes and images of what she sees and loves onto canvas has always been an important element of her landscape painting. So, when she learned several years ago that her eyesight was fading, she was confronted by a range of fears, insecurities and self-doubts that only people who had trodden that dark road of imperfection will know. “I’ve been painting since I was a child, it’s something I took to naturally and something that became a huge part of who I was,” Mills said. “So, to start to lose my sight…
PROTECTIVE Services Officers could be trialled at Frankston Hospital to tackle escalating violence in the state’s health care system, under a plan outlined by state opposition leader Matthew Guy. Guy said that if elected, a Liberal National state government would pay for a two-year trial at five hospitals to support the recruitment, training and deployment of 75 new PSOs to provide around-the-clock support from mobile stations. The Premier Daniel Andrews said there was no evidence Guy’s PSO trial would solve the problem and a 2011 parliamentary inquiry also recommended against deploying PSOs to hospitals. Guy said PSOs would be able…
AT just nine Mount Eliza’s Josh Berry knew he wanted to do something for people in need, so he did something a little different – he started collecting socks. Fast forward seven years and the industrious year 10 student has collected 38,000 pairs of new socks and is still counting. Berry says he came up with the idea when he was thinking about ways to help homeless people, and realised warm socks were something everyone needed. “I did some research and warm socks was apparently the second biggest needed clothing item,” he said. His initial aim was to collect 50,000…