Front page of last week's Boorowa News bore a photograph of the 'army' of volunteers from North Sydney here on their annual pilgrimage to enhance Boorowa's environment, planting thousands of trees.
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Look at the photograph and it's apparent these intrepid tree planters were heavily rugged up against the miserable conditions they faced that weekend, it was a shocker.
The North Sydney Bushcare group with their Building Bridges to Boorowa program has been running for 20 years. I can almost bet you could count, on one hand, the number of fine warm weekends they've gone out planting.
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They've gone out and planted trees on wet, sometimes miserable weekends, but each year they come with smiles on their faces, get down and dirty and do their bit to improve the Boorowa landscape and environment.
North Sydney volunteer Ms Holliday summed up why they come so well saying, "Trees just roll out across the landscape and then you come back and see birds and hear the wildlife that is coming back into the area".
WITS
Hilltops Council is in a bit of bother being threatened with suspension for failure to get their 2017/2018 financial statements in on time.
The Local Government Minister, Shelley Hancock, is well within her rights to suspend the Council considering this important Council performance indicator was almost a year late from when an extension of time had been granted.
Apparently, the facts and figures were uploaded earlier this month and on the same day Council received a notice of intention to issue a performance improvement notice with requests for Council to submit reasons why such notice should not be issued.
These annual reports are vital and questions should be asked as to where Hilltops Council is falling down.
WITS
Last week was Suicide Prevention Week, a week in which we here in Boorowa, as in many rural centres, should reflect on those no longer in our midst, who found life had become too much, too hard, and suicide was the only way they could find relief.
One young woman was so passionate about how we should acknowledge this week, she sought and received Council permission, and wrote messages in chalk on our footpaths.
Judge her not on how she put out the messages, but what she was trying to say. Chalk can be removed, the messages should be indelibly etched in our minds.
The library ladies last Thursday had a RUOK initiative distributing packs that could be taken to have a cuppa with a friend or lonely neighbour. We do have some people in our town feeling the need to ask of others, "Are you okay?"
If we all could find that compassion, look beyond ourselves, seek out people in need and ask them RUOK, we may be on our way to preventing, and better still eliminating, more suicides.
WITS
Mental health is related to positive thinking. The winner is always part of the answer, losers part of the problem. The winner always has a program, the loser an excuse. The winner says, "Let me do it for you." The loser, "It's not my job".
The winner sees an answer for every problem, the loser a problem for every answer. The winner sees a green near every sand trap, the loser two or three sand traps near every green. The winner says, "it may be difficult but it's possible." The loser says, "It may be possible but It's too difficult."
Moral is easy ... be a winner.
