NEWS DESK
Money trail aids worthy cause A MONEY trail event at Patterson River Secondary College has helped students raise funds to buy books for underprivileged children in Somaliland and Cambodia. We are talking big money, too: The students raised more than $1000 – with office staff needing several trips to take the heavy load to the bank, teacher Janet Mitchell said. The event was supported by Buddhist monk The Venerable Terry who is collecting good quality, used textbooks, as well as fiction, for orphanages, schools and universities in the African and Asian countries. Ms Mitchell said the school has been involved in the program for four years. “Exercise books are a luxury in both places and few kids get them, so we had a fundraiser at the school to raise money to buy exercise books to send over,” she said. “The competition between years 7 and 9 form groups involved a silver coin challenge. The students had to collect five cent pieces and other silver coins and lay them out in a straight line in the basketball stadium. The longest line won. “The winning form – 7E – had more than $200 in silver coins stretching 95 metres – a fantastic effort – and 9G were the next best with 67 metres. “It was a close competition – but the real winners will be the kids in those countries who will receive an exercise book, pencil and eraser. This will allow them to erase the pencil marks and reuse the book when it
Hope for track cash KINGSTON Council has applied for funding to upgrade the GR Bricker Reserve Athletics Track, Moorabbin. Council has already committed $700,000 over the next two years to the $1.2 million project. The aim is to upgrade the running track to improve conditions for the 250 junior athletes from Moorabbin Little Athletics Club. The money is being sought from the Community Sports Infrastructure Fund. Mayor Cr Geoff Gledhill said the club “did a fantastic job promoting a healthy and active lifestyle to hundreds of young people each year”. “It’s time their facility was upgraded to ensure our young people have a modern, safe track to compete and train on,” Cr Gledhill said. The current bitumen surface will be replaced with a modern rubber surface to comply with current standards for competition tracks. Major drainage works would also take place. Only one project can be submitted by each council for Sport and Recreation Victorian major facilities funding. Successful projects will be announced in March.
Call out for crafty sorts KINGSTON Arts Maker’s Market will be bigger than ever in its upcoming seventh year. Applications are open for stallholders who can showcase their designs to crowds of more than 7000. Held in early December, the Maker’s Market offers a one-stop shop for unique and stylish Christmas presents. See kingstonarts.com.au for application details. Stallholder applications close Monday 5 October.
Silver service: Buddhist monk The Venerable Terry oversees lines of five cent coins laid out at Patterson River Secondary College to buy books for underprivileged pupils. Picture: Yanni
is filled. Our kids were brilliant and extremely enthusiastic.” Somaliland-Australian Friendship Foundation president Mohamed Hussein praised the donation as “very significant and deeply appreciated”. “I have discussed with you the various and consistent challenges that our people regularly face back home,
especially when it comes to dealing and struggling with education needs and other health related matters,” he said. “The contribution that you have made towards this noble initiative will be immensely appreciated and will be provided to the desperately needy people of Somaliland, who are
extremely in need of, and will forever cherish, this wonderful opportunity. “The Somaliland schools and universities need more help than ever before, and any further assistance provided by your school or perhaps any other networks, will be deeply appreciated.” Stephen Taylor
Cemetery plot for Green Wedge PART of Kingston’s Green Wedge has been earmarked as a cemetery under a controversial plan by Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust to build a “Kingston Memorial Park” in Heatherton. The Trust approached Kingston Council last week to outline its plans to buy about 130 hectares of Green Wedge land north of Old Dandenong Rd to develop the land for a cemetery and memorial park amid a looming shortage of grave sites across many of Melbourne’s existing cemeteries. SMCT manages eight burial sites including the Cheltenham Memorial Park, Cheltenham Pioneer Cemetery, Spring-
vale Botanical Cemetery and Bunurong Memorial Park. The Trust is a not-for-profit manager of cemeteries and reports to the Victorian Department of Health. Trust spokesman Leigh Funston declined to discuss the specifics of the Kingston Memorial Park when contacted by The News. “The matter is before government so we can’t comment at this point while it’s being considered by government,” he said. Mr Funston did say many of Melbourne’s existing cemeteries have limited spaces available to bury the dead. “There are around five years [of supply] around many cemeteries.” Springvale Botanical Cemetery has “about 15 years” worth of grave sites left, according to Mr Funston.
Bunurong Memorial Park is being developed and “is in large part a construction site” but will be an example of how cemetery sites could become places to visit with the addition of memorial parks and “garden landscapes” and “promenades”, he said. “We’re trying to get people to think differently about cemeteries and memorial parks and to engage with them in the way Melbourne residents in the Victorian era did,” Mr Funston said. “We need to make the cemeteries and memorial parks more recreational or ‘go to’ areas – a place for passive reflection and relaxation.” Defenders of the South East Green Wedge secretary Barry Ross says the proposed Highett location for the Kingston Memorial Park “is definitely in the wrong spot”.
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some time the Health Department and various cemetery trusts have been looking for appropriate locations for future memorial gardens or burial space,” he said. “The Trust is now talking to the Health Minister’s Department because that’s where it falls and we will await what comes back from them.” He said if the Labor state government gives the go ahead for the Heatherton land to be used for a memorial park then private landowners will have to reach “a commercial agreement with the Trust” and this does not involve council. A spokeswoman for Health Minister Jill Hennessy confirmed the government has received “a proposal from SMCT” regarding a possible memorial park at Heatherton but “no decision is expected any time soon”.
Cemeteries are allowed in green wedge areas but Mr Ross said the Heatherton land identified by SMCT for burial purposes “covers the best and much of the market garden land in Kingston”. “The Kingston market gardens are very productive and with the rising concern about food security and ‘food miles’, we should be protecting and expanding what we have close to the city, not destroying this vital asset,” he said. “There has been no public consultation in Kingston about this proposal and we are fearful that it looks like it might be delivered as a fait accompli without proper consideration of alternatives.” Kingston mayor Cr Geoff Gledhill confirmed the Trust has outlined its plans for the Kingston Memorial Park to council. “I don’t think it’s any secret that for
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Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News 16 September 2015
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