Page 1068 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 2013

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Yarralumla Meats, Yarralumla Pharmacy, Yarralumla Post Office and Flowers and Yarralumla Surgery.

For many of these businesses, Tuesday evening’s road closure of parts of Bentham and Hutchins streets was a major inconvenience, and on behalf of the community I thank them all for their cooperation and understanding.

The evening also included a welcome speech from the president, Maria Fatseas, and an introduction to Robyn Archer, creative director of the centenary of Canberra. And after Robyn’s informative speech, she led the community in a spirited rendition of Happy Birthday to Canberra. It was a great night where the community had the opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new friends and celebrate the 100th birthday of our capital city. Congratulations to all the contributors to this great community event.

Charity events

MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (4.44): I would like to acknowledge some of the community involvement over the weekend by staff of Corrections ACT and some of the broader JACS staff. On Saturday morning, I joined a bunch of Corrections ACT staff for a breakfast barbecue at the Alexander Maconochie Centre prior to wishing them well on their way before they embarked on their annual charity motorbike ride. The ride was in support of the Starlight Children’s Foundation. It is a great charity and certainly many of the staff were resplendent in their yellow Starlight Children’s Foundation T-shirts. The ride started at the AMC and finished at O’Brien’s Hotel Narooma, which was followed by an evening of raffles, auctions and festivities, probably a few beverages, although I cannot actually confirm that, and then a ride back to Canberra the next day.

There were 39 riders in the convoy. Those riders included the superintendent of the AMC, Mr Don Taylor, who dusted off his old motorbike riding habits to make it for the occasion and also, perhaps to break the stereotype that some of us might have, there were quite a few female riders in the group heading down the coast as well, which was terrific to see. The group raised $10,000 for the Starlight Foundation. Over the four years of running this event, they have raised a total of nearly $50,000. So it is a tremendous effort by a relatively small team from the Alexander Maconochie Centre.

Later on the Saturday I also joined corrections staff as part of the JACS jolly joggers for the Cancer Council’s 24-hour relay for life at the Australian Institute of Sport track. This is a community event to celebrate cancer survivors, to remember loved ones lost to cancer and to fight back against the disease. It is a tremendous community occasion, with many participants taking part over the full 24 hours of the event.

The JACS team had representation from ACT Corrections, the ACT Law Courts and Tribunals, the ACT Government Solicitor’s Office, the Public Trustee for the ACT, JACS executive group, JACS planning and policy, the ACT Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the ACT Parliamentary Counsel’s Office. So it was from right across the department.


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