Stella winner donates money to other writers

Carrie Tiffany

The inaugural winner of the Stella Prize for Australian women's writing has donated part of her prize money to her fellow finalists.

Melbourne author Carrie Tiffany won the prize for her second novel, Mateship with Birds, which follows the fortunes of a farmer and aged-care nurse in 1950s country Victoria.

The award, named after author Stella Miles Franklin, has been established to promote female writers.

Ms Tiffany donated $10,000 of her $50,000 prize to the other shortlisted authors.

Mateship With Birds

She says they all deserve recognition.

"I read all of the books on the shortlist and a lot of them on the long list and I think they're fantastic and really a gift to our literary culture," she said.

"I think that the Stellas are an opportunity to do things a bit differently and to acknowledge the many, rather than the few.

"It is really difficult to choose a book from a shortlist and I wanted to spread attention across all of those books, rather than just mine."

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-17/tiffany-wins-inaugural-prize-for-women27s-writing/4633958

Let me talk to you about First Aid

"In all the horror in Boston Monday, there are also heartening stories about how kindness emerged from tragedy: people on Twitter urging others to note the people who run towards the explosions, not away from them, to help; stories of heroism from runners; journalists who ran the marathon, springing into action to cover the story; the first responders."

Source: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/04/photos-stories-kindness-boston-marathon-bombing/64258/

Sometimes, bad things happen, and it makes no sense. People feel hopeless and helpless.

FUN FACT
 A white cross on a green background
is used to indicate first aid and
workplace/occupational health and safety.
The red cross people
usually confuse this with is actually
the universal emblem of protection in
armed conflict.

When you see the bad things on the TV look at the heroes, the volunteers, the first responders, the everyday people who are assisting through the chaos. It can help you to still see the good in the world and feel less hopeless.

A way to feel less helpless though? Why not do a First Aid Course?

Just the knowledge that you could assist your family, kids, friends or even a stranger if something bad ever happened will help you feel more empowered and less helpless.

I believe that getting your First Aid Certificate should be a manditory part of getting your Drivers License, but that is a soap box for another day.

Did you know that you can now do part of the 'Apply First Aid' (formerly Senior First Aid) online?

You can do a First Aid Course through The Red Cross or St Johns Ambulance. 

Check with your employer, many will pay for you to do this course and, in some companies, if you become the official First Aid Officer you even receive compensation in your pay packet!

Yes, the world is scary, and bad things happen, and I hope more than anything that you, reading this, are never the one running forward trying to help, but wouldn't you feel better if you had the knowledge to know that you could?

Written by Samara Jenkins  @theyellowsnail

Beastie Boy Mike D Serves Up Meals From Food Truck To Hurricane Sandy Victims

Seeing the damage to Rockaway Beach, he launched the Rockaway Plate Lunchtruck with restauranteur and friend Robert McKinley.

The Beastie Boys' Mike D is fighting for more than the right to party -- he's been helping serve Hurricane Sandy victims warm meals from a food truck.

The musician, whose full name is Michael Diamond, spoke to GOOD Magazine on Tuesday about the project. Since the storm, more than 19,000 free meals have been served.

The cooking expertise come from Sam Talbot of 'Top Chef' fame, who is working with teams at New York's Spotted Pig and Fat Radish restaurants, to serve up rice, beans, chicken and vegetables.

In the Vimeo video above, Mike D explains that a food truck allowed easy navigationthrough the changing post-Sandy landscape. The team feeds anywhere from 200 to 500 people daily.

"The willingness to get involved has been amazing," McKinley says in the video. "There's been no egos and everyone is working really hard."

Five months after the storm, Mike D wants to transition the project to a full-time restaurant staffed by residents.

"There’s still the need for warm food out there, but our real goal for this summer is to help revitalize the local economy," he told GOOD magazine.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/05/beastie-boy-food-truck_n_3024894.html

Toby Kick's facination with firefighters reaches new level after he was saved by firefighters

LITTLE Toby Kick's fascination with firefighters has reached a new level after his heroes rescued him from a painful situation last week. 
 
The inquisitive three-year-old managed to get half his right arm sucked down the pool filter at his grandparents' Mona Vale home last Tuesday.

Fire officers Chris McNeill and Dean Hollander are 

re-united with Toby Kick, 3, and dad Darren 

after they were called last week when Toby 

got his hand stuck in a pool filter. 

Picture: Simon Cocksedge. Source: NewsLocal

Seconds after dad Darren Kick told Toby not to touch the filter, the little boy screamed.
"I was mortified and scared, I knew exactly what he had done," Mr Kick said.

He quickly turned off the filter power to stop the strong suction pulling at his son's tiny arm, and jumped into the pool.

He managed to pull the arm out, but the large, plastic filter cover was still stuck above Toby's wrist and his hand was too swollen to pull it free.

A distressed Toby was crying from pain and shock.

Mr Kick dialled Triple-0 and within minutes two police cars, an ambulance and three fire engines with 10 firefighters from Mona Vale and Narrabeen stations arrived.

Senior firefighter Chris McNeill from Narrabeen Fire Station was soon doing the delicate job of cutting the plastic with an air-powered grinder and a filesaw.

"It's a fairly straightforward job but you have to be wary not to inflict further injuries with the tools," he said.

Toby was given a trauma teddy to keep him occupied while the plastic cover was cut off, and was afterwards rewarded for his bravery with an iceblock.

Source - http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-beaches/toby-kicks-facination-with-firefighters-reaches-new-level-after-he-was-saved-by-firefighters/story-fngr8hax-1226610814388

The kind words of a stranger...

To the woman in the milk and cheese aisle last night, I want to say – THANK YOU. Your random act of parental support saved my sanity. It turned my horrendous day around, and all because you took twenty seconds out of your day to support me – a total stranger.

I was having one of those moments every parent has been through, and everyone else has witnessed – the very public meltdown. Not by me – well, my meltdown was internal – but by my two children, in the middle of a busy Sydney supermarket, at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Both contained within the trolley (thank god), I’m sure their screaming could be heard all the way to the toilet paper aisle.

Overtired, hungry, and pushed too far by a busy Mum, they’d had enough. And so had I.

But just as I felt my own tears of exhaustion and embarrassment begin to well up, one understanding and empathic women pushed her way through the judgemental shoppers and whispered to me “You’re doing a great job.”

Wow. What powerful words. And what a rare thing to witness nowadays.

Is it just me, or is support from strangers becoming more and more uncommon? I certainly think so.

[…]The thing is, we never really know what’s going on in someone’s life. Perhaps that woman who cut you off at the traffic lights is in a rush to pick up her sick kid from school. Or perhaps that man pushing past you at the train station has been up all night worried about losing his job. Or perhaps […] that woman in the carpark has just packed up her life and moved to a new city where she feels totally alone.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we gave everyone the benefit of the doubt? Rather than react with anger or judgement, wouldn’t it be fantastic if everyone was like that amazing woman in the supermarket and assumed they just need a little understanding Try it. One day, it might just be you rushing the wrong way down a one-way street, after losing your job, and with a screaming child needing a toilet.

Story written by Amy Taylor-Kabbaz
Source: www.mamamia.com.au

'Awesome' students hailed for woman's lake rescue

A group of young students has been hailed for their bravery after they saved a woman who crashed her car into a lake in Sydney yesterday.

The TAFE students swam into the lake at Olympic Park, in the city's west, to pull the woman from her sinking vehicle.

Cooper Judd, one of the students, says they were on a bus returning from an excursion to the Royal Easter Show when they noticed the woman hunched over the steering wheel of her car as it ploughed towards the lake.

"We looked back and we saw her coming down these stairs. We were telling the bus driver to stop," he said.

"All of us just ran down. Tom and Luke ran into the water and got her window down.

"Then me and Blake came in after and me and Blake pulled her out of the car and got her back up here."

Tom Walmslui was one of the students who reached the woman first.

"A few of the boys saw the lady hunched over the steering wheel. We got the bus driver to turn around and me and Luke jumped out the emergency exit and just jumped straight in and swam out to her," he said.

"All her windows were up, so I had to push her windows down. She wasn't ready to come out, she kept saying that her daughter and husband were still in the car, but there was no-one else."

The woman was treated by paramedics at the scene.

Her husband, David Milkovic, says the young men deserve bravery awards.

"I'd just like to thank the boys from the bottom of my heart. Without them who knows what could have happened, my wife could have died," he said.

"They deserve bravery awards. They're awesome, awesome fellas."

Source - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-19/27awesome27-students-hailed-for-rescuing-woman-from-lake/4582428

Be inspired by Shabana Basij-Rasikh in this TED talk - Dare to educate Afghan girls.

Happy Monday!

Imagine a country where girls must sneak out to go to school, with deadly consequences if they get caught learning. This was Afghanistan under the Taliban, and traces of that danger remain today. 22-year-old Shabana Basij-Rasikh runs a school for girls in Afghanistan. She celebrates the power of a family's decision to believe in their daughters -- and tells the story of one brave father who stood up to local threats.

Source - http://www.ted.com/talks/shabana_basij_rasikh_dare_to_educate_afghan_girls.html

200 strangers attend British Marine's funeral after Facebook plea

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

LONDON -- More than 200 strangers attended a British veteran's funeral after a clergyman put out a plea on Facebook, fearing he would be buried without mourners, according to reports.

James McConnell, who served with the U.K.'s Royal Marines, died last month aged 70.

Staff at his nursing home in Southsea, Hampshire, thought they would be the only people at his funeral as he did not have any close family, ITV News reported.

The Rev. Bob Mason, posted a message on Facebook and contacted the Royal Marines Association.

The message, which was shared and reposted by members of the association and thousands of other Facebook users, said:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, In this day and age it is tragic enough that anyone has to leave this world with no one to mourn their passing, but this man was family and I am sure you will agree deserves a better send off. If you can make it to the graveside for that time to pay your respects to a former brother in arms then please try to be there."

A motorcycle procession during the funeral of James McConnell, who died last month at the age of 70.

Hundreds responded to the message, braving the freezing temperatures to attend Thursday’s ceremony at Milton Cemetery in nearby Portsmouth.

'Dignified burial'

Mason, who conducted Thursday’s funeral, told local newspaper, The News: “I want to say a big thank you to all of those who turned up.

“Many people had concerns about him being buried with no family present but now they have seen him have a dignified burial.”

Among those attending was Arthur Bailey, 88, who was a soldier who served in several conflicts.

"I heard about it and just wanted to come along," he told The News. "This is what the armed forces family is for. It’s a credit to everyone who turned up."

Source -http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/21/17043695-200-strangers-attend-british-marines-funeral-after-facebook-plea?lite