One of Australia’s most loved and leading comic entertainers Vince Sorrenti will be in Forbes next year for the Rugby Union Club’s major annual fundraiser. Vince will be the guest speaker at the President’s Lunch on Saturday, 18th March with an expected attendance of 880 guests. Vince, a four-time winner of the Mo Award for Australia’s Best Stand-Up Comic, is highly sought after as a host and performer.

He not only has a career as a TV host, but is also an actor, MC and writer. The event will again be managed by the
table captain system, which sees invitations sent to representatives who manage payments and attendance for a table of ten. There is ever-increasing demand for seats so numbers will be capped in 2017. Community members who would like to be added to the waitlist for table captaincy or fill-in attendance are invited to email rugbylunchforbes@
gmail.com. Existing table captains should expect to receive event information soon.

With the weather finally warming up swimming is an ideal way to get a full body workout. Unfortunately due to the repetitive nature of swimming overuse injuries in the shoulder and neck are common. The shoulder is a ball and socket joint with a ring of cartilage around the socket to make the joint more stable. Around this is a loose
joint capsule that is reinforced with ligaments and muscles. Because the shoulder is a very mobile joint it relies on the action of these muscles and ligaments to maintain stability. These muscles are called the rotator cuff and consist of four muscles that work together to keep your shoulder centred in its socket.

So, if swimming strengthens the shoulder muscles why do so many swimmers have shoulder problems? The simple answer is due to the repetitive nature of swimming. The more complex answer lies in the fact that many swimmers
don’t have good stroke technique and those that do can still have problems because the swim stroke (in particular freestyle), mainly strengthens the shoulder internal rotators and adductors. This causes muscle imbalance,
leaving the scapular stabilisers and external rotators relatively weak and joint laxity increases. The rotator cuff then must work harder to keep the shoulder centred in the socket.

When the already relatively weakened external rotators fatigue the ball of the shoulder joint moves forward and the
tendon of the rotator cuff muscles is pinched between the bones as the hand is raised above shoulder height. Next column I will cover some practical ways to prevent this happening and what to do if you already have impingement problems.

“For the fitness of you”
Linda Reilly

More than $1,500 worth of prizes were won at the annual Find it in Forbes Christmas Festival. The festival had lots to offer for everyone from the Forbes Farmers Markets to kids rides and entertainment, and performances by Kristin’s Dance Studio and the Red Bend Marching Band. The three $500 Why Leave Town cards were won by Maddi Noble, Matthew Little and Robyn Kenny respectively. The names drawn for the two $100 cards were Wendy
Burke and Shan Pearce.

The major prize pool of $15,000 will be drawn on Thursday, 22nd December at 6pm. There will be three prizes, plus a bonus card prize. Everyone making a purchase in participating stores will receive entries.

The Jemalong Residential Village (JRV) will hold its first ever Market Day on Tuesday, 6th December. The market will run from 10 am to 2pm and offer a variety of stalls with crafts made by residents over the past 12 months, plants, Christmas toys, homemade cakes and jams and some commercial products offered by businesses from town. There will also be a bbq and a raffle for a king size quilt.

According to Gwen Barnard of JRV the residents initiated the idea for a market day, after the annual fete had to be cancelled because of the floods. “We hope to get a good attendance. We have 91 residents and they all have family who would come, but the whole community is welcome,” said Gwen. The money raised from the event will
be used to buy one or more special chairs with wheels residents can use when eating.

“It is much easier to push them in on these chairs and is a much safer option for both the residents and the staff,” explained Gwen. She said one chair cost between $700 to $800. “We have already raised about $700 with the raffle, so we might be able to buy two chairs.” The JVR hope to make it an annual event.

Six students from the Forbes High school will be part of the Schools Spectacular Guiness World Records attempt in Sydney this weekend. The Department of Education will attempt to set a new Guiness World Record today from 11am to 2pm for the Largest Amateur Theatre Cast. The record attempt is part of a campaign by Schools Spectacular to celebrate the biggest year ever in the event’s 33 year history with over 5,500 students performing at the Qudos Bank Arena.

With the theme Dream Big, the new venue at Sydney’s Olympic Park has enabled more student performers than ever to be part of the show. The students from Forbes are able to dream big thanks to the generosity of local community organisations in town and fundraising efforts by students and staff. The Forbes students will be taking part in the D’Arts Ensemble dance item. The D’Arts Dance Ensemble is a vital part of the show, which includes students with special needs. They have been working hard at their dance routine since July this year and rehearsed choreography via videos uploaded online three times a week. They left earlier this week for Sydney to attend two days of rehearsals in preparation for the two matinee and two evening performances today and tomorrow.

Principal of Forbes High School, Charles Dwyer said: “It is important to us as a school to ensure that all of our students have access to a quality education and opportunities. We have a fantastic group of staff in our support unit who have worked extremely hard to support the students to attend the Schools Spectacular this year. The support from the Forbes Services Club, Forbes Lions Club and Forbes Shire Council has really helped our students to be able to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

More than 30 schools from western NSW form part of more than 500 schools taking part in the Schools Spectacular. The annual show is unparalleled in the world in terms of numbers taking part. It engages and showcases students of different ages, cultures, skills and socio-economic backgrounds from metropolitan, rural and remote regions of NSW.

The show will be broadcast on Channel Seven.

It’s never too late to learn. This was the most important lesson for the students of a senior’s IT course. They completed Certificate I in Information Technology on Tuesday, after nine months of attending weekly classes.
Some of the students started the course having never even turned on a computer. It was a challenging prospect, but teacher, Steve Welsh said the biggest problem was self-doubt. “People think they can’t handle it and they lose heart. But with patience and perseverance it all just falls into place,” he said.

The course was initiated by Monica Wren of Neighbourhood Central. She said it stemmed from a client who wanted to be able to shop on the internet and felt left out of the technological age. “These days everything is online, even essential services like MyGov. This means people are reliant on others to access government services, which obviously creates privacy issues,” Monica said.

Home and Community Care (HACC) is focussed on helping people remain independent, and technology training was one aspect of increasing independence. More clients wanted to learn to use technology, but Monica felt she didn’t have the skills or the time to provide instruction, so she looked to TAFE. The students studied six units on modern technology. The module Digital Devices taught them to use items such as phones and cameras; even printing photographs is daunting for someone who has always used film.

Ann Williams bought a tablet and needed to learn how to use it. “I felt I was getting behind and wanted to learn how to Skype my grandchildren, and communicate with friends,” she said. The course will run again next year, and fee exemption is available for senior students. Student support is also available for students with additional needs, such as impaired hearing or reduced mobility.

By Raen Fraser