Parkes Shire Library received a whopping 40 applications from eager year five students to become Library Ambassadors this year. All of the 40 applications received were extremely well written, making the decision very difficult. 

This week, Parkes students attended a small presentation ceremony and afternoon tea at Parkes Library. Library staff also visited branch libraries and schools to present the 2023 Ambassadors with their official badges.

The role of a Library Ambassador is to inform their school community of upcoming events, programs, exhibitions and activities that are taking place at the Libraries in Parkes Shire and Marramarra Makerspace.

The Library Ambassador Program has successfully run in Parkes for several years, and this year, the smaller towns within Parkes Shire were invited to participate in the program. Interested students were asked to apply for the position of Library Ambassador for their town, and a total of 16 applications were received from four schools. As a result, Bogan Gate, Trundle and Peak Hill now also have their very own Library Ambassadors. 

Parkes Shire Library Ambassadors for 2023

 

 

 

Earlier this week, Member for Orange Philip Donato MP caught up with Parkes District Kennel Club Inc to inspect their newly completed fencing, funded by a $24,910 grant under the 2022 NSW Government’s Community Building Partnership.

Funding was allocated for the removal of existing ring pipework, construction of new post and rail, chain, wire and mesh fencing and construction of entry and exit gates for competition rings. All works have now been completed.

Parkes District Kennel Club member Fiona Watts was on hand to show Phil the completed works, saying, “An enclosed fence was a pipe dream for us. We’ve received a few smaller grants from Council for equipment, as that can be expensive, but the cost of the enclosed fencing seemed unobtainable.”

The club applied for a grant and under the Community Partnership Program. Phil explained the process, “The applications come to my office, I asses them, score them and rank them, whhich accounts for 60% of the overall ratings of the scores. Applications then go to an independent review panel where they get scored again and the scores are collated before funding is allocated.”

The new fencing was erected by local contactor, Matt Clarke from Central West Fencing. 

The Parkes District Kennel Club has been operating for 60 years, predominantly as a confirmation club for breeders. However, for the past six years, they have been focusing on sporting.

There is a stellar line up of guest speakers at next week’s Disaster Resilience – Australian Local Government Women’s annual conference which is being held in Forbes.

Starting on Thursday 27th April, city and regional council representatives will be travelling to Forbes to enjoy discovering our town. Guests will participate in tours and morning walks around the lake before settling in to share and learn about building stronger and more resilient communities in the wake of disaster.

On Friday, key speakers will be Tracey Spicer AM – author, journalist and broadcaster, Shane Fitzsimmons AO AFSM, Jo Beadle – GIVIT National Manager, Major Matina Jewell CSP and Elizabeth Rushbrook, Disaster Relief Australia.

On Saturday, guest speakers will include Heidi Stratford – NSW Reconstruction Authority and ANU’s Prfessor Tanya Jakimow.

Local speakers are Eugowra resident Jess Eijkman, Bailee Harrison and Paul Faulkiner who will share their first hand accounts, experiences and recovery from the 2022 central west floods. Rebecca Miller and Louise Bernardi will also be empowering conference guests with presentations.

There will be a Gala Dinner on Saturday night and everyone is welcome to attend – tickets are available for purchase at 2023 ALGWA NSW Branch Annual Conference Tickets (123tix.com.au).

Limited sponsored tickets are available for Forbes businesses and individuals impacted by the flood to attend the main addresses on Friday and Saturday. Please contact Briony Ferguson on 6850 2300 to discuss and make arrangements to attend or for more information regarding the event.

The Hansen family have the distinction of being the oldest family operated and continuous running optometry practice in Australia, having provided eye care to the people of the central west for six generations. 

Their story began in the 1890s when Henry Hansen, a Danish immigrant and watch-maker opened his business in Orange. Henry Hansen sold ready-made spectacles as part of his inventory. 

Fast forward to the early 1900s, and his son Frederick began working at the family business, advertising himself as a “Scientific Optician”, performing rudimentary eye examinations and prescribing spectacles.

This tradition continued with his sons Lel and Bob, taking over the business after completing their optometry studies. This saw the evolution of the family business from a humble jeweller and watchmaker that dabbled in providing spectacles, into Western Optical Pty Ltd, with optometry practices in Orange, Parkes and Wellington. 

They also started the first lens grinding laboratory west of the Blue Mountains in NSW. This laboratory provided the lenses for spectacles all over central west NSW and further abroad.

Over the next 50 years, the scope of the Optometry profession steadily evolved as did Hansens, with the next generation of Hansen optometrists entering and running the business. 

In 2008, the fourth generation of Hansen Optometrists began working in the practice. Soon after in 2012, they purchased an existing optometry practice at 267a Clarinda Street Parkes, which became Hansen Eyecare Plus Parkes. 

They soon expanded operations, providing an optometrist five days a week, increasing staff and giving a much needed injection of new technology to better service the eye care needs of the people of Parkes. 

Hansens continues to defy current trends by remaining a fully independent, family owned optometry practice in a sea of foreign owned, corporate optometrists. They have survived the test of time, continuing to evolve and staying at the forefront of optometry with the latest advances in technology and eye care innovations. This allows them to provide the highest quality of eye care to their patients. 

They also pride themselves on their strong involvement in the local community, providing vision screenings to primary schools, after hours services, home visit to the elderly, sponsorship to local charities and spectacles to the less fortunate. 

Hansens delves into many of the sub-specialties of optometry including children’s vision, dry eye management, specialty contact lenses and orthokeratology. 

With optometry in their DNA and a fantastic team of support staff, there is little doubt that Hansen’s will continue to support the people of Parkes and the surrounding community for generations to come. 

 

New licensee of Forbes and Parkes McDonalds, Jenny Parfitt, together with her husband Dave and two daughters Lilly and Isla packed up their lives in the Blue Mountains to take on a new challenge in Parkes.

Jenny’s career progression through the ranks of the fast food giant, McDonalds is an inspiring story.

Raised in a working class, middle income family, Jenny had always been of the belief that if you want something, you work for it. Her first job was at Emu Plains McDonalds when she was just 14 years old. Jenny worked there for six months before moving to the Penrith Leagues restaurant and spending the next 23 years with the same licensee.

Jenny took a break from work for six months at 25 when her first daughter Lilly came along. Within six months of returning from maternity leave, Jenny was promoted to Operations Supervisor.

Fast forward four years, and Jenny was offered the opportunity to buy a share and become an equity partner. By the time she left Penrith to relocate to Parkes, they jointly owned nine stores. 

Since moving to Parkes, Jenny has been overwhelmed by the amazing local support she has received. “The people of Forbes and Parkes are just so kind and lovely, we have felt very welcomed,” said Jenny. 

The Forbes and Parkes McDonalds stores have also come on board as the brand new sponsors of our extremely popular Tradie of the Month feature. For details on how to enter please refer to the ad on page 8 of this week’s paper.

Twenty one year old Ben Lovett, from Parkes, started playing rugby league when he was just five years old. His hard work and sheer determination over the years has secured a him a spot with one of the NRL’s top rugby league teams, the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

The Forbes and Parkes Phoenix spoke to Ben’s parents, John and Fiona Lovett about Ben’s debut. 

Proud mother Fiona said, “We’re still quite overwhelmed and excited. We had hoped that he would debut sometime this year because he is in the first grade squad, had been named in reserve for the past few weeks and he was doing quite well.”

Describing the moment Ben first told them he was going to make his debut, Fiona said, “Ben face timed us both separately and it was quite emotional.” 

Last Saturday, 25th March, on the day of Ben’s debut, an excited John and Fiona arrived early and watched the three games prior to the main event. 

“We watched the crowd build up, and all the people that had come from Parkes to watch. It was an exciting build up to the moment when Ben came on in the 60th minute,” said Fiona.

During last Saturday’s game against the Manly Sea Eagles, South Sydney paid tribute to one of rugby leagues greats who recently passed away, four time premiership winning captain, John Satler. Ben was honoured to be presented his jersey by John Satlers son, Scott Satler.