GUNNEDAH Evening VIEW Club was represented at the Zone N109 gala day in Glen Innes last weekend with a group of 10 members enjoying a weekend of friendship with club members from around the north west.
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Zone councillor Sally Cronberger and national councillor Beryl Pike spoke about the work of VIEW's 13 clubs in the zone, with a total of 528 members supporting 36 disadvantaged students through the Smith Family's Learning for Life program.
The Smith Family's Family Partnerships coordinator, Laura Bezon, outlined the success of the scholarship program, speaking about students who have gone on to forge successful careers after tertiary education.
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General donations to the Smith Family's winter and Christmas appeals totalled $26,691, with student sponsorship money reaching the grand sum of $28,404.
Gunnedah Evening VIEW Club sponsors three senior students and news of their progress is always gratefully received. Past President Margaret Stevens presented the club's annual report, along with representatives from other clubs. With a total of 55 members, Gunnedah Evening VIEW Club has the third highest membership in the zone and new members are always welcome.
The gathering included a Welcome to Country and an introduction to an unusual didgeridoo, shaped like a French Horn, by Aboriginal entertainer Bob Blair, who was able to produce some amazing sounds. Bob then donned his head dress for an indigenous "story telling" dance, where he morphed into a lizard, kangaroo and other native animals, always moving between the tables to the delight of visitors.
Glen Innes student Tahnee Conroy sang and played guitar enthralling her audience with the Leonard Cohen hit Hallelujah and her own composition No More War.
Glen Innes local Kerry Sturtridge spoke about the honour of receiving an OAM in this year's Australia Day awards and how she head only accepted the honour because her nominator had "promised her mother" before she died - prime example of VIEW women supporting their communities across a broad canvas.
The inspiring guest speaker was Wendy Hornsby, the wife of Aboriginal artist Lloyd Gawura Hornsby, who has won international acclaim for his unique work. Together they opened the Gawura Gallery on the New England Highway at Glen Innes. Brought together by adversity, the couple married 57 years ago when they were teenagers and together they have gone from strength to strength. A white woman woman living in an Aboriginal world, Wendy often experienced the same discrimination that was rampant back in the 1960s but they forged on together - and now Lloyd's work is acclaimed worldwide. Members agreed that their personal story is worthy of a book.
The couple wanted to open a gallery in their retirement years and chose Glen Innes because elf its location on the New England Highway and acceptance by the local community.
The gathering closed with a reminder of the national conference on the Sunshine Coast in September and the need for members to take on the upcoming roles of zone and national councillors.
