NEWS DESK
Pony Club looks to the future MENTONE Pony Club is galloping towards a bright future thanks to a new partnership with Kingston Council. Mayor Cr Tamsin Bearsley said Kingston Council was proud to partner with the Mentone Pony Club to ensure it had enough land to grow and develop into the future. “Council has granted a licence to use 17.5 hectare site right next door to the club’s Patterson Lakes home base which it shares with the Dingley Pony Club at a very reasonable community rate,” Cr Bearsley said. “The club’s expanded site will give them the room to move so the club can grow from strength to strength. “Council was happy to work with the club to find ways to support and strengthen our vital community sports groups. We’re particularly pleased to
help support a local club doing great work to promote an active and healthy lifestyle to young girls.” Mentone Pony Club President Mike Creed said the expansion would allow the club to continue to encourage and support young riders. “This is a fantastic sport that provides young people, largely girls, with a fantastic sense of self-confidence,” he said. “The new grounds will give the club a major boost and allow us to offer a national standard cross country course. The Mentone Pony Club, which has around 50 members, welcomes new riders and the public is invited to visit the club on its monthly pony club rally days. See mentone.ponyclubvic.org.au for details.
Needle work: Community Support Frankston agency manager Steve Phillips, left, Elizabeth Alexandrou, Di MacDonald and Annie Nichols get together to knit blankets for the homeless at The Dharma Hub Cafe in Frankston. Picture: Gary Sissons
Knitting together has blanket appeal A KNITTING project to help the homeless is growing by the day at three cafes and two schools in the Frankston area. Di MacDonald decided to begin the ‘Knit-A-Row and Go’ initiative after seeing a Facebook page two years ago showing a South African shop owner encouraging locals to knit scarves for homeless people. The Frankston resident dropped off knitting needles, yarn and instructions for a ‘feel good pattern’ at the Street Express Cafe in Chelsea and encouraged knitters dropping in for a cuppa to knit as many lines as they liked to
make blankets for the homeless. “I moved back down to Frankston about a year ago and wanted to keep it going here,” Ms MacDonald said. “Now I’ve got three cafes in Frankston and a couple of schools involved.” When blankets are about a metre long Ms MacDonald collects them and passes them on to Community Support Frankston to distribute to the homeless. “We donate the blankets and they select who to pass them on to in the community,” she said. Students at St Anne’s Primary School in Seaford and Woodleigh
School’s Minimbah junior campus in Frankston got in on the knitting act and began darning blankets together to make rugs. The ‘Knit-A-Row and Go’ project is located at The Dharma Hub Cafe, 439 Nepean Hwy, Frankston; Trims Restaurant, 40 Playne St, Frankston and Rocotillos Cafe, 36 Wells St, Frankston. Donations of knitting needles and yarn and good old fashioned knitting time are always welcome. See the ‘Knit-A-Row and Go’ Facebook page for further information. Neil Walker
Great leap forward: Mentone Pony Club was forced to leaves its former Bangholme base, above, due to a landlord land sale three years ago. Picture: Gary Sissons
Sculptures exhibition cash boost
Patience needed: Expert sand sculptors build elaborate displays for the Sand Sculptures exhibition at Frankston’s waterfront each year.
THE sand sculpture exhibition at Frankston’s waterfront could become an all-year round display thanks to a $750,000 federal government grant to build a weatherproof shell to house the sand sculptures. The grant, part of a federal nationwide $3.6 million Tourism Demand Driver Infrastructure program, will see exhibition owners Sandstorm Events build a ‘clear span structure’ at the sand sculpture exhibition’s Nepean Hwy home. “I am beyond excited that Sand Sculpting Australia has been a successful recipient of the latest TDDI grant - and am both proud and thrilled with the belief in sand sculpture as a national tourism product for Victoria,” Sandstorm Events managing director Sharon Redmond said. The company says the sand sculpting
exhibition, lured from Rye by Frankston Council in 2007, has injected an estimated $100 million into Frankston’s economy since its debut on the waterfront. Federal Dunkley Liberal MP Bruce Billson said the investment in a sheltered venue for the sand sculptures exhibition would help attract more visitors to Frankston all year round. The clear span structure will be weatherproofed and include lighting displays for sand structures. The exhibition, with a different theme each year, usually runs over the summer months. “This is all part of our plan to create more jobs and economic opportunity in our region and builds on the Turnbull Coalition government’s investment in the redevelopment of the Frankston Yacht Club foreshore precinct as a real
magnet for our city by the bay,” Mr Billson said. Frankston Council welcomed the $750,000 investment but said the yearround exhibition will still have to be approved by council. “This $750,000 grant is a huge vote of confidence in the significance of the Frankston Sand Sculpting Australia exhibition and the Frankston Waterfront as a tourist destination,” Mayor Cr James Dooley said. “Since it first began in December 2007, the annual exhibition has become a hallmark event that sees tourists return to the Frankston Waterfront every year to view their latest exhibition. So much so that the Sand Sculpting Australia exhibition will receive its one millionth visitor within the next two weeks.”
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BLAIRGOWRIE • DROMANA • MORNINGTON • ROSEBUD • SEAFORD • TOORAK Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News 24 February 2016
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