There’s a certain symmetry to a piece informing readers that two major organisations in Campbelltown and Macarthur will be celebrating milestones close together over the next 12 months.
First up is Odyssey House, which started helping people with drug and alcohol addictions in 1977, and so will mark 40 years with some special events which we are not allowed to tell you yet.
And next year marks 50 years since the late John Marden started up the Marsden Law Group, now headed by his little brother Jim and other senior partners.
Speaking of Jim Marsden, he also wears another hat, that of Macarthur Club founder. And that’s where the symmetry comes in:
When long serving Odyssey House chief and founder James Pitts retired last year and was replaced with Julie Babineau, Jim Marsden didn’t waste too much time in getting the new Odyssey House CEO to become a member of the Macarthur Club.
Which is really another way of saying, “welcome to Macarthur, Julie’’, so well done to Jim Marsden and the Macarthur Club.
Ms Babineau told the South West Voice she loves good coffee so she already know some of the Macarthur hotspots for a good brew, although her education in the area is far from complete.
By the way, the South West Voice feature on Ms Babineau and Odyssey House will appear later this week, and all we can say at this stage is that this wonderful institution is still in very good hands.
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Macarthur Greeks founder and president John Tsekas returned from his tour of the old country with a gift for the mayor of Campbelltown.
The Leumeah resident was given a book on northern Greek City Larissa by its mayor and is now organising a presentation for George Brticevic, the mayor of Campbelltown.
Before leaving with his family, Tsekas also presented local MP Greg Warren with a Greek flag in appreciation of his support for Macarthur Greeks.
The next Macarthur Greeks function planned is a night of Carnivale fun at Camden’s coolest spot, upstairs@freds on Saturday, February 25. Visit the Macarthur Greeks Facebook page for more details if you are interested in going.
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Across the Georges River at Cambridge Avenue are the world’s longest suffering residents.
They have been fighting intermodal plans for more than a decade and ended last year on a low because the council backed No Intermodal Committee was given the chop.
Then the following email arrived in the inbox of mostly Wattle Grove and Moorebank residents:
“Good news RAIDers! After a presentation by the chairman of RAID Moorebank, John Anderson, at the first [Liverpool] Council meeting of the year, the No Intermodal Committee has been reinstated.
“Councillor Hadchiti raised the motion for the immediate reinstatement of the committee and the following councillors supported with a yes vote: Ayaad, Hadid, Balloot, Harle, Rhodes.
“Those who voted against the motion were: Mayor Waller, Councillors Haggerty, Shelton, Kaliyanda, Karnib.
“Our fight continues,’’ said the missive, lifting the spirits of RAID or Resident Against Intermodal Developments.
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At yesterday’s “pink day’’ at Raby Sports Complex, one of the guests was Ghosts cricket club patron Anoulack Chanthivong, the State Member for Macquarie Fields.
The local MP was checking out the scores put on white boards adjacent to the hospitality table when he spotted a familiar name.
“I know Ray Roscoe,’’ said the MP, “we went to school together.’’
But that wasn’t the end of it: a Ghosts official said to Anoulack, “well, why don’t you say hello to Ray’s parents, they’re sitting right behind you!’’
Which the MP proceeded to do – and you have to admit that’s a nice end to a “it’s a small world’’ story.
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Pat Durman, the long serving president of the Macarthur branch of National Parks Association sent an interesting comment to a story the Voice published on cancer and preventable causes:
“I have lost friends and my sister in law is going through her second bought of cancer,’’ Pat wrote.
None of these people have smoked and they have had a healthy diet and looked after their weight.
“When they have asked their doctors ‘why me’ all of the doctors have just looked out the window or suggested that air pollution is one of our greatest causes of cancer, so let us not keep on just putting the blame on the person, but rather on the government who have ignored the air quality reports for years,’’ Pat said.
