# Good things happening in your community/area



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*The title says it all. This thread is for positive, good things, happening in your neck of the woods.*

The idea for this came from reading about a local Anglican priest here who has boxed a record 120 rounds (8 hours!) to raise $10,000 for his efforts in getting local youth off drugs and alcohol.

Reverend Dave Smith has set up a boxing ring near his church in Sydney where he trains young people to play the sport as a way out of their troubles. He obviously thinks sport has positive effects, not only physical. Eg. learning the rules of the game, respect for your opponent, the discipline of training, etc.

Here is a report of the attempt, which was successful, on Palm Sunday just gone.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...s-on-palm-sunday/story-e6freuy9-1226299080885

A number of people fought the reverend, including not only Christians but people of all faiths, as well as non-believers. A number of celebrities donned the gloves for a bout or two in the ring.

Now over to you. I'd love to hear of similar things happening all over the world, where our members come from, and the focus is on common things amongst us all, our humanity. Often, these things are not reported as widely as they should be, and they get obscured by other 'big' news items.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

An old building in our city that was once used by the INS, (immigration and naturalization services) who were probably a bit to a lot racist is now being turned into a center for the preservation of the arts. It's a project called "Inscape." It can be read about on this website: http://inscapearts.org/

One of my classes took a field trip here about a week ago. It was kind of creepy actually haha since they hadn't redone a lot of it yet. It looked like a creepy old hospital or something and just knowing that it used to detain a bunch of people in bad conditions kinda creeped me out. There were things like "**** the INS" written on the walls, which I believe the people involved with the Inscape project will probably keep as an historical testament.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^That reminds me of some things in Australia. The main one that comes to mind is the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, which was converted maybe 20 years ago for use in housing exhibitions and other artistic events.

http://www.casulapowerhouse.com/about-us/the-powerhouse.aspx

Yes, this is a positive thing. The old knock 'em down attitude is less prevalent now. The approach now is to reuse and remodel the buildings we have, make sense in terms of preserving local heritage as well as environmentally better (eg. reusing materials, not putting them into landfill).


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## Chrythes (Oct 13, 2011)

Next month we are having the 6th Street Musicians Day in Lithuania.
It's a really fun idea that was founded by one of the leading rock-independent (which began in the 80's in the sense of being independent from the Soviet Union) musicians of Lithuania (Mamontovas) and since the first year it was launched it had great success. 
It started in Vilnius, but over the years it became national.

Here's a short video about it:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^Yes, these kinds of smaller music/arts festivals have been growing here too, we have various_ Fringe Festivals_, which are in some ways no longer fringe, they've really become events many people go to.

A local story that caught my attention - well it's not in my local area, but still in Australia - was this guy called Jacob French who walked across Australia in a stormtrooper outfit to raise money for charity. Mr. French just completed his epic walk, battling electrical storms, 40 degree heat, blowflies, weight loss, muscle cramps, you name it. He has raised over $100,000 (62,000 pounds) for a children's cancer charity, _The Starlight Foundation_. A quirky feelgood story this is, good on him.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life/stormtrooper-jacobs-starlight-trek-20110716-1hizq.html


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I wish I could notice _anything_ happening in my area other than spending my life living under a rock.


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