Dust off your blue suede shoes and preen that pompadour to perfection because there’s a whole lot of rocking competitions at the 2016 Parkes Elvis Festival! Registrations for the Festival’s popular Busking Competition and the McDonald’s Rock’n’Roll Dancing Competition are now open.

For the buskers, there are fantastic cash prizes and trophies on offer with the top three buskers chosen by popular vote. The three busking big shots will then compete for the title of Best Busker. In the Dancing Competition, entrants will be judged on their enthusiasm, attitude, rockin’ moves and costume. There are junior and senior categories so dancers of any age can join in.

If you’re not a dancer or a singer, there are plenty of other ways to get involved in the Festival with the annual Poets’ Breakfast and Elvis Edible Art competitions. More than 120 free and ticketed events, shows, concerts and competitions will feature on the 2016 program which is now available online and in print pocket-guide format. For more information, visit www.parkeselvisfestival.com.au

Forbes High School turns 50 this year and groups of ex-students are organising school reunions to coincide with the milestone birthday.

One of those groups is the Class of 1988, and they are putting the word out, hoping to get as many people as possible from their year to join the reunion at Forbes Sport & Recreation Club on Friday 13 November. The organising committee behind the reunion have been friends since school, making sure to keep in contact after 26 years.

“We all get together once every 2 to 3 months for a cuppa and a catch-up,” says reunion organiser Tami Stewart. “We had one for our 20 year reunion and it was great. So many people came. We were supposed to have one for 25 years
but everyone was just too busy.” “With the school’s 50th anniversary coming up we thought why not get together?”

Tami hopes any ex-students still living in Forbes, or any of their parents, will pass the message on and help the Class of ’88 have their biggest High School reunion yet. If you want to connect with your old school buddies from 1988, check out the Forbes High School Class of 1988 Facebook page and remember to pass the message on!

The National Barbeque Championships held in Forbes on Saturday 17th October were hailed a huge success according to committee President and Forbes Councillor, Chris Roylance.

Sixteen teams donned their aprons and tongs to compete for the coveted trophy with the overall winners, Melbourne based team “Natural Born Grillers”. The Melbourne duo of Pan Van Duinen and Andrew Kavanagh were inspired to enter the event when members of the National Barbeque committee attended the Barbeque Festival in Melbourne earlier this year. The pair were very excited with the win and plan to return next year to defend their title.

Many of the teams competing on the day were locals and really got into the spirit with inventive team names, uniforms and decorated workstations. Peter Ashcroft, local chef and regular judge for the championships was impressed with the standard of meats presented for judging. “There has definitely been an improvement over the years, and the variety of flavours experienced this year was exceptional”.

Each team had to prepare and present four different cuts of meat by specific times and winners of each category were spread across many teams. The overall winner was determined after the Last category was judged. The meat was supplied by Bernardi’s IGA and Peter was extremely impressed with the quality.

TV Chef and personality “Fast” Ed Halmagyi, certainly drew a crowd for his cooking demonstrations. “He was a real showman” Peter said and the crowd really enjoyed his simple instructions and his down to earth personality. Peter
liked the way Ed told the crowd there was no need to buy the most expensive ingredients, they just needed to be a good quality. Ed was very impressed with the event and plans to come back next year as a competitor.

The committee are meeting this week to commence preparations and confirm dates for the 2016 Event which they believe will be bigger and better than ever.

As the state-wide Cooee March approaches, towns and villages along the route are now finalising arrangements to welcome the marchers to their communities, commemorating all those who volunteered to service in WWI.

The Central Western portion of the march, the Boomerang March, is a unique part of the history of the region. The March was one of nine snowballing recruiting marches held throughout NSW in late 1915 and early 1916.

In this centenary year of the ANZAC, the 2015 Boomerang March aims to use this history of volunteering to focus on the present day volunteers who serve our communities – the Rural Fire Service, the State Emergency Service, Defence Reserves, the Country Women’s Association, Progress Associations, Rotary, Lions, Apex, sporting and special purpose committees.

“The energy and effort that local groups and individuals are putting into this commemoration continues to amaze me. Some of these communities are very small, yet they are embracing the March with open arms – very much in the spirit of volunteering that we are celebrating,” said March coordinator Kim Templeton.

The March will pass through Forbes, Eugowra, Gooloogong, Canowindra, Billimari, Cowra, Woodstock, Lyndhurst, Mandurama, Carcoar, Blayney, Newbridge and Perthville. The March will leave Parkes on Saturday 31 October and end in Bathurst on Tuesday 10 November where the Boomerangs meet up with the Kookaburra March coming
from Tooraweenah via Mudgee.

March organisers are looking for full-time or part-time marchers to represent their community in this unique opportunity to relive a special part of history. An Expression of Interest form is available on the Boomerang
website www.cooeemarch.org.au/boomerangs.

History will be repeated on Saturday 31 October when the Boomerang March travels from Parkes to Forbes by train.
A re-enactment of the World War I “Boomerangs” recruiting March will take place throughout towns across the state including Forbes in a celebration of the volunteer values which have been epitomised in the ANZAC Spirit.

The original marches from Parkes, Bogan Gate, Alectown, Condobolin and Peak Hill left Parkes on 19 January 1916, picking up recruits along the route through Forbes, Eugowra, Gooloogong, Canowindra, Billimari, Cowra, Woodstock, Lyndhurst, Mandurama, Carcoar, Blayney, Newbridge, Georges Plains and Perthville. A contingent of 202 men marched into Bathurst on 5 February 1916.

This re-enactment will commence and finish a few months earlier than the historically correct dates but the route will still pass through most of the communities visited on the original march. Participants will travel from Bathurst
to Sydney and join with participants of six other recruiting march re-enactments to attend the Remembrance Day service in Martin Place.

“The original marchers were the ultimate volunteers, signing up for military service and heading to a war that was no longer an unknown adventure,” says Cooee March 2015 organiser Helen Templeton. The Lachlan Valley Railway will run three return motor rail trips during the day from Forbes to Parkes providing a unique opportunity for families to travel to the Boomerang March commemorative events in both towns. Lachlan Valley Rail will also be running
two 80-minute heritage rail trips. The first will leave Parkes at 9:30am, returning at 10:50am. The second will depart from Forbes at 12:30pm and return at 1:40pm.

To book tickets on any of the trips visit www.lvr.com.au. Register your interest as a marcher at www.cooeemarch.org.au/boomerangs/.

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is calling on Forbes residents to show their support for the charity by simply rocking their Ronald socks off in the lead up to McHappy Day on Saturday 17 October.

For the first time, the all-new Ronald Socks have been added as an item to the fundraising mix and are a fun way for people to show their support for RMHC. Now in its 25th year, McHappy Day raises money for RMHC which creates, finds and supports programs across Australia that help seriously ill children and their families. Their programs help families all the way along the often long journey to recovery, including providing a home-away-from-home for a night or even a year so families can stay together in a friendly environment; through to providing school catch-up services through the Learning Program.

This year, one of Australia’s favourite musicians Ricki-Lee has been announced as this year’s Ambassador for McHappy Day. She is encouraging Australians to get out and about on Saturday to help raise a record $3.4 million for RMCH. Ricki-Lee has had a long and close association with RMHC since she participated in her first ever charity activity – visiting the families at Ronald McDonald House in Sydney in 2004 when she was on Australian Idol.

This visit had a profound effect on Ricki with her commitment to the charity continuing seeing her perform at multiple RMHC Balls and naming RMHC as her charity of choice when she competed in Dancing with the Stars in 2014.

To get involved, Forbes families can share how they are rocking their socks off for McHappy Day on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram by using the hashtag #McHappyDay. It can be as simple as showcasing your air guitar skills or best Elvis hairdo!

Forbes own branch of Neighbourhood Watch hosted its first ever Home Security Information Expo at Bunnings on Sunday 11 October. About 45 people attended the event including Mayor Phyllis Miller who opened the Expo by
welcoming the audience and thanking Bunnings for coming to Forbes.

Police Constable Daniel Greef spoke for a while on a range of issues and provided some very good tips on how to improve the security in your home, around your home and when obtaining cash from ATMs. Constable Greef can also offer free home security assessments so if you are interested, feel free to give him a call at the Forbes Police
Station on 6853 9999.

Bunnings staff members presented informative, helpful and entertaining demonstrations on a great range of home security products, including alarms, locks, safes and solar lights. Seven lucky people in the audience also won some fantastic prizes which were generously donated by Bunnings.

After the Expo, a BBQ was hosted by Forbes Neighbourhood Watch volunteers. The organisers would like to sincerely thank the Mayor for attending, the Forbes Shire Council for their financial support for this event, Anita Morrison for her efforts and suggestions, Bunnings for staging this Expo at their Forbes store, Constable Daniel Greef, Bunnings staff members April Townsend, Brenda Weatherall, Sid Zuliani, Jason Godden and the people of Forbes who attended this successful Home Security Information Expo. Enjoy living in Forbes!