New Youth Participation Fund Announced for Casino

Momentum Collective, the not-for-profit organisation managing the Casino Neighbourhood Centre, has secured a $76,363 grant through the Youth Participation Fund, a component of the Resilient Kids Program managed by Social Futures. This significant funding will support the organization’s efforts to engage and empower youth currently disengaged from school.

The Resilient Kids Program aims to foster resilience and active youth participation. Momentum Collective won this grant through a competitive tender process to implement a transformative program over the next twelve months.

Designed to run during the school term, the program targets students disconnected from traditional educational environments. Each term, Momentum Collective will conduct four dynamic workshops in partnership with local Elders, entrepreneurs, and community and emergency services. These workshops will focus on skill-building, social integration, community awareness, and having fun, culminating in a community celebration to showcase the participants’ progress and achievements.

Fiona Miller, Operations Manager at Momentum Collective, is enthusiastic about launching the first program next month. The team is finalising plans to ensure the program delivers impactful and engaging experiences for the youth involved.

“The first round of workshops, ‘Garden to Table,’ will focus on sourcing food, budgeting, shopping, meal prep, and serving. Through these activities, we believe participants will gain confidence, develop meaningful relationships, and build a strong sense of belonging. These are the key outcomes we aim to achieve with our program,” said Ms. Miller.

Momentum Collective remains committed to making a positive difference in the lives of young people.

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Local slow cooked pies are gold standard

By Samantha Elley

Dan and Emily Clark had their eye on the pie prize when Dan flew down to Melbourne recently to enter some of their pies in the Baking Association of Australia’s Best Pie competition.

“They have a trade show that ties in with (the pie competition),” said Emily.

“We decided we would enter a couple of our pies in it.

“So Dan flew them down as special cargo down to Melbourne.”

To their surprise and delight they walked away with a gold, a silver and two bronze medals for their efforts.

“We entered our plain pie, our Mexican pie, satay chicken and our Lamb, Rosemary and Mash,” said Emily.

“We enter the pies not to win, just to gauge where we sit with other bakers, to make sure we are doing the right thing and heading in the right direction.

“We were really, really stoked.”

They won gold for the lamb pie, silver for the satay and bronze for both the plain and Mexican pies.

“We only came up with the lamb, rosemary and mash 2-3 weeks before the pie comp was on,” said Dan.

“It was a brand new one that we’d never tried before.”

The business opened in February 2023 and has been serving up a wide range of baked goods, all made from scratch, to the Casino public ever since.

“Dan was working in a bakery in Lismore,” said Emily

“He is a qualified baker and he had always had this idea in his head that one day he would like to get here.”

The couple had started a grazing box business which outgrew their home and knew they had to either finish up or continue expanding what they had started.

From there, Wild Soul Bakehouse was born.

They often rotate new flavours of pies every two weeks to provide variety, but after their success in competition, Dan and Emily are keen to keep the lamb pie on as a regular.

And their secret?

“We do all our pies from scratch, pastries from scratch, we don’t buy in anything,” said Dan.

“With our lamb, we slow cook the meat, so we take our time and let the flavours develop.”

You can sample the award winning pies at Wild Soul Bakehouse, 70 Centre Street, Casino.

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37^th Bentley Art Prize promises to be a great event

By Samantha Elley

There has been a changing of the guard in the running of the 37th Bentley Art Prize for 2024.

For the past 18 years Bentley’s Helen Trustum has been running the show, but she has now stepped down and a new committee of eight, headed by Gordon Serone, will be taking over.

“Helen’s service to the community, for which we give hearfelt thanks, has been truly amazing,” said Gordon.

“We wish her a relaxing retirement and hope she’ll come along to join in the fun, with no responsibility.”

This year’s Bentley Art Prize is on the weekend of July 12-14, starting on the Friday night with a cheese and wine event.

“Judging will take place on Friday afternoon,” said Gordon.

“The deadline for entry submissions will be June 28 and all entries need to be at the (Bentley) hall by Thursday afternoon, July 11.

“Because the prize will be in the school holidays, if the schools want to deliver their submissions, they can deliver directly to 56 O’neill Road, Bentley.

“We’ve also changed the categories where we took out the Golden Oldies section because everyone is an oldie now.”

All the regular sponsors have continued with their support, collectively donating prizes of over $14,000.

“We are very thankful to Richmond Dairies, Richmond Valley Council, the Casino RSM Club, Macdonalds pharmacy and Dr Castagna and Richmond Valley Library,” said Gordon.

With the expectation of over 300 entries this year, Gordon said the event is shaping up to be a fabulous weekend.

“Starting with the entertainment by Jamie Sullivan on Friday night, Luke Vassella on Saturday and Croaker and the Honeybee and Sylvia Nowlan on Sunday,” said Gordon.

Judging will be done by artist Harry Westera. His work can be seen here.

The cost of submitting an artwork is $10, or free for school children.

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