Christmas is not far around the corner and the members of Rotary in Forbes invite you to make and decorate a Christmas tree or create a Nativity scene for exhibition at their community Christmas Tree Festival to be held at the Forbes Town Hall, in December, with the grand opening to be held on Friday 2nd December. There are no size
restrictions, with your nativity or tree being any size you like. Trees can be commercially bought or could be a tree in a pot or in a bucket full of wet sand or a painted gum branch. There is a $5 entry fee and all money raised will support local Rotary Ipomoea projects. For further information, contact Mrs Sue-anne Nixon, President of
Forbes Rotary Ipomea on 02 6851 4930.

Also the Forbes Community Carols by Candlelight will be held on Sunday December 4th at 7pm. So start getting creative and get in the Christmas spirit.

Last Thursday the Forbes Services Memorial Club held it’s annual Cheque Presentation Ceremony where more than 36 Community Groups were presented with in excess of $80,000 sponsorship through ClubGRANTS program. Giving back to the community which supports the Club is very important and something that Club Manager, David Fitzgerald, and the Club’s Board of Directors are extremely passionate about.

David said in the twelve years he had been with the club this is the highest amount given out to local organisations.
Each year local community organisations, sporting groups, and charities that make a difference in the local area are recognised and rewarded for their efforts through the program. In addition to this generous sponsorship the club also provides meeting facilities to organisations for their regular meetings free of charge.

ClubGRANTS is broken into two categories and Category 1 recipients included: Lachlan Legacy, Torch Bearers for Legacy, Forbes North Public School Breakfast Club, Forbes High School Support Unit Schools Spectacular, Red Bend Catholic College Art Therapy Program, Forbes State Emergency Services, Forbes Rural Fire Service, Camp Quality, Forbes Basketball Association, Havannah House, CanAssist and Forbes Shire Council Youth Week activities. Forbes Rugby Union Club, Forbes Senior Cricket, Bedgerabong Picnic Races, Forbes Sports Person of the Year Association, Forbes Country Music, Forbes Golfers Association, Lachlan Valley Community Radio, Forbes Eisteddfod, Sculpture Forbes, Red Bend Junior Rugby League, Forbes Picnic Races, Forbes Diggers Swimming Club, NSW Small Wine
Makers Show, Forbes Aboriginal Community Working Party, Forbes Camel Races, Forbes Rodeo, Forbes Junior Cricket, Forbes Australia Day Activities, Forbes Cup and Forbes Diggers Harness Racing Club were all grateful recipients of the Category 2 grants.

In addition to the grant program the following organisations received the profits from the monthly Community Chest Charity Raffles: CanAssist, Torch Bearers for Legacy, Forbes Basketball Association, Forbes Rural Fire Service, Forbes State Emergency Service, Jemalong Residential Village, Mater Aged Care Service, Red Bend Junior Rugby League, House With No Steps and Forbes Auto Sports.

The next round of grants opens soon and clubs who would like to be part of the Community Chest Charity Raffle are advised to apply at the club.

By Anita Morrison

Shannon Birmingham, from Forbes Central Butchery, was crowned Central West Continental and Australian Lamb Sausage King for 2016 in Bathurst on the weekend. Shannon and his team travelled to Bathurst on the weekend to take part in the Sausage King & Best Butcher’s Burger Competition. The competition was run by the Australian Meat Industry Council, with competitors coming from all over the state to participate. In Shannon’s categories, Continental Sausages and the Australian Lamb category there were at least 50 competitors in each.

Shannon managed to win both sections and they have won the Central West division for the past four years,
over the five years that they have been attending. Shannon will be selling these sausages both in his store and also on his runs out to Parkes and around the Forbes area. He is still experimenting with some new and different
flavours and these include cheesebburger, wild tomato and pepper, hawaiian, lamb curry and many more. The meat that Shannon uses in his sausages is sourced from Breakout Meats, Cowra. It is great to have a win like this particularly when Forbes has been under so much stress with the floods.

Having owned the Shell Forbes for just over 12 months, owner Charanject Singh Bhamra has already made some important changes. New pumps have been installed for all types of petrol, with diesel pumps now being under cover for the first time. These new pumps meet the standards laid down by EPA, as well as being faster, more accurate, and require little maintenance. Should a spill occur, the spill now goes into the sump instead of going into any drain
which will save our environment in case of any major spill.

Singh said: “With this investment, it shows our commitment to Forbes and the community as we strive to provide a better level of service, with all staff who work in the store, being locals. We have maintained our driveway service for all cars who require petrol under the canopy, in addition to carrying a range of new products for our customers.

We also have plans to build up the takeaway side of the business by extending the area of the current shop and we are already underway with this process. With many offers available, including the Bernardi’s offer which entitles any purchaser to receive a 4c a litre discount with the provision of a Bernardi’s docket, and the offer of a 1c a litre off any purchase of 200 litres of any type of fuel, we believe that we offer very competitive rates across the Forbes area.”

Call in and say hello to Singh, Paul, Amanda and the team at the Shell Forbes.

The town of Canowindra is all set for a huge influx of tourists and a massive range of events this weekend, as the town’s biggest ever October long weekend takes place. What originally started as the annual Airing of the Quilts to take place on the October long weekend has grown to also include Charlie McCarron’s auction, tours of Canowindra, markets, exhibitions, barbeques, and live music.

The auction of Charlie McCarron’s vintage car collection is expected to attract thousands of people alone, however with all of the other events taking place across the weekend, even more people are expected to travel to Canowindra.
Fiona Ferguson, a member of local community organisation ‘Canowindra@Home’ who has played a major role in organising Canowindra’s long weekend, said it was an event the entire Canowindra community could look forward to.

“Charlie McCarron’s auction at Canowindra Motors will obviously be the highlight of the weekend.” “The quilt themed window displays, which started on Wednesday, will be a great way to get visitors to see Canowindra as well.
The idea behind that is to get people to walk around the town to view the quilts- almost like a trail.”

Besides Charlie McCarron’s auction, the Airing of the Quilts and the Twilight Markets, there will also be the “Roasted” exhibition at Delice, the “Past and Present” exhibition at the Old Vic Inn, various events at the Canowindra Services Club, a busking competition at Deli Lama, the Moorbel Markets, various community BBQ fundraisers, the Canowindra CWA open day, and “Blind Freddy’s” half day tours of Canowindra.
By Joshua Matic

Forbes High School, along with family and friends said farewell to Year 12 last Friday, wishing them all the best of luck in their HSC and in their future. The morning assembly provided the opportunity for Year 12 students to be recognised for their achievements, with major awards being presented. Major awards on the day were presented
and awarded to the following Year 12 students; Sally Downie- Dux of Year 12, Emily Godden- Blue & Gold Citizenship, Monica Pascoe- P&C Presentation to representative students, Oliver Carlisle -Carmel Hodges
Memorial Humanitarian Award, Madeline Dukes -Reuben F Scarf Award, Jake Ellison- Louise Stephenson Award, Monica Pascoe -Caltex Best All Rounder, Monica Pascoe and Nicole Morrison- Citizenship Awards, Morgan Penman- TVET Animal Studies Award, Grace Quigley- TVET Early Childhood Award, Quintin Hapgood- TVET
Information Technology Award and Jacob Beard- TVET Certificate III Media Studies, VET student of the Year Sally Downie.

Along with Year 12 providing a gift to the school, a special moment was shared with the school community, with a multimedia presentation put together by outgoing School Captain Emily Godden highlighting the amazing journey the 2016 Year 12 cohort have undertaken at Forbes High School, as well as commemorating fellow School Captain Oliver Carlisle and his unforgettable contribution to Forbes High School.

Very early one Sunday morning the calm waters of Lake Forbes were high and shrouded with light fog.

Seven eager members of the Forbes Dragon Boat Club were waiting for a truck to turn the corner… a truck carrying two long awaited, new racing dragon boats.

Past president, Bill Thomas, and past Treasurer, Claire Davis, were among the eager onlookers to witness the Forbes Dragon Boat Club change from its almost three decades old boats to much lighter, sleeker, modern racing boats.

As the truck rumbled into sight, a buzz went through the little group and cameras began clicking. The boats were unloaded with great enthusiasm and carefully set in their new home.

Many delighted phrases rang out like: “Wow! We have foot-rests.”, “They have handles! We can move them so much easier!” and “They’re so much lighter.” The club is ready for the next paddling session and can hardly wait to get them in the water.

“The boats have come about due to the hard work of our previous board and we thank them once again, especially Bill and Claire,” said President Robyn Stephens.

The club is set to go from strength to strength with a very committed new board: Robyn Stephens, president; Tony Fisher, vice-president; Michael Green, treasurer; Kristine Dobell, registrar; Chris Sweeney, publicity officer; Ian Prince, works coordinator; Neil Stephens, board member and Warren Edwards, secretary.

If you would like to join our club or find out more about it come along on Sunday mornings at 8:30 – the water recedes – and 6:30 Thursday evenings in daylight-saving time. You can find us on Facebook. It’s a great sport and a great club. You are most welcome to come along!

By Bill and Beth Thomas

 

Bernardi’s Marketplace in Forbes will undergo exciting changes over a four week period to provide an enhanced shopping experience for customers. “After a great deal of market research and valuable feedback from customers, we have started making some changes to our supermarket,” said Joseph Bernardi, CEO of Supermarkets.

The refurbished store will have a bigger focus on fresh produce, sourced locally from the Central West as much as possible, an enhanced bakery with freshly baked sourdough bread, cakes and pastries, new Grab & Go lunch options and a new range of bulk wholefoods. “We want to give Forbes shoppers more reasons to shop local,” said Joseph.
“In our experience, when locals purchase more of their groceries in town it has a positive knock on effect for a lot of other small businesses.”

A range of new brands of healthy and specialty foods, as well as locally sourced products, will also be entering the store in October. New and interesting products will be added to the Everyday Low Price program. Regular customers would have noticed some changes already with corrugated iron and timber added at the entrance and inside the store. The finished product will give the store a barn feel. As part of the upgrade, the group will also launch a new Community Benefits program with $6,000 awarded to three local community groups. Applications are open until
30th September. The successful recipients will be announced at the launch of the new store in late October. Application forms are available from sarah@bernardigroup.com.au.

Most of the work is being done after hours to minimize disruption to customers as much as possible. “I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused during the fit-out, but we promise any disruption will be well worth the final result,” Joseph said.

Forbes Public School (FPS) students took part in a Mini Olympics event at the school recently organised by Year 6. The 300 students were divided into nine countries and marched in an opening ceremony with the school captains carrying the Olympic torch donated to the school by Robert Lytton OAM, who carried the torch through Forbes in 2000.

The year 6 students ran activities like tug of war, gum boot toss, sack races, egg and spoon obstacle course, hoop throwing, hurdles, relays, soccer dribbling races and target ball throwing. Students have been studying the Olympic Games and loved seeing the joy on the faces of outstanding role models displaying sportsmanship and national pride. They also witnessed athletes who have trained hard, sacrificed a lot and competed with everything they had.

With Australian childhood obesity at a record high, FPS is committed to exposing students to as many opportunities as possible to enable them to find their preferred sport and develop a life-long love of it. As part of this term’s skipping unit, FPS participated in the Jump Rope for Heart Program. In the classroom, students learnt about heart health including nutrition and the dangers of smoking. In sports skills, students learnt tricks using skipping ropes and choreographed routines, and in the community, students fundraised for the Heart Foundation, while the school newsletter featured articles educating parents about healthy eating and keeping children active.

After the Mini Olympics event, students from Kindergarten to year 6 put on an amazing skipping show. The school raised well over $5,000 for the Heart Foundation and the P & C raised more than $600 through the Mini Olympics, Jump Rope for Heart skipping show and celebration lunch.

By Katie Stitt