That was a comment said to me over the weekend and I can’t help but agree.
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Reverend Graham Long, our Australia Day ambassador, in his address encouraged us to focus on the positive.
He said - and I’m paraphrasing - that if you focus on the negative, that’s where you’ll end up.
Instead, he said, people who focus on the positive create a more positive future.
Is there anyone in our community who does a better job of that than Sue Gaffney?
No, she’s not perfect – she’d be the first to admit it. And life hasn’t always dealt her the best cards. But she has an irrepressible ability to turn lemons into lemonade.
The dance and auction on Saturday night is a prime example.
She and Cathy Cooke saw a need - namely funds to help the community feed the BlazeAid volunteers for the next few months – and they responded in a fun yet practical way. With Sue’s enthusiasm and knack of getting people to agree to just about anything, and Cathy’s excellent organisational abilities, they had the basics of the ‘Fire Ball’ worked out faster than you can say ‘Someone should do something’.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard that phrase: ‘Someone should do something’. It’s very easy to come up with a great idea but then push the expectation onto ‘someone else’ to actually carry it through. Then get disgruntled when it doesn’t happen.
Do-ers like Sue – and others who regularly muck in and join with her on her schemes, or come up with their own – are a gift to a community.
The fundraising evening was a joyful event which, as well as raising more than $15,000 in one night, also gave a community that’s had a rough trot a chance to get together and have some fun.
Everyone involved should be congratulated.