
Hi Everyone,
Earlier this week, my mum and a friend were discussing how disappointing it is that the English tabloids are dominated by stories about a disgraced prince and alleged sexual predator. Especially when there is so much more worth talking about.
I couldn’t agree more.
If you read this paper regularly, you’ll know we focus on positive community news. It’s not just a preference; it’s our business model. And people clearly love it too.
Over the years, we’ve discovered there’s no shortage of uplifting and inspiring local news stories, even in a small community like ours. Imagine if national headlines were filled with stories that celebrate generosity, resilience and creativity. There are certainly enough of them around if only you open your eyes to take a look.
This week brought two wonderful reminders of that.
The first was meeting a baby wombat cradled in the arms (and, to our surprise, tucked safely inside the bra) of Ailen from Fauna Rescue Whitsundays. She keeps rescued joeys close to incubate and nurse them back to health.
You can read more on page 10 about how our company presented Fauna Rescue with $8,000. This donation is part of the $56,000 raised at our Enchanted Garden fundraiser in October. Thanks to the generosity of our community, seven local beneficiaries will each receive an equal share. We’ll be introducing them in print and online over the coming weeks.
The second inspiring moment was attending the Whitsundays Writers Festival focus group on Sunday. I was thrilled to see our two young journalists there, alongside our Sales Manager Trish, who serves on the advisory board with me and other passionate locals.
The committee has one bold goal for the Whitsundays Writers Festival: to become Australia’s best and largest regional writers festival. I admire their ambition, their vision and belief in our region.
Here’s to keeping the good news shining bright in our region!
Rach
Quote of the Week “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot” Michael Altshuler