I was delighted to be able to attend the Yagoona Public School art exhibition and auction held at the Yagoona Public School Library last week. The quality of the students’ work was excellent. I joined in the auction and was lucky enough to buy four of the artworks for Council’s art collection.

Last Thursday I joined Aunty Carol Brown and Metro MRC President Maria Cosmidis to open the Metro Migrant Resource Centre at their new centre's new branch at Condell Park. Bankstown City Council has provided the facility to support the MRC's work within the local government area. The Metro MRC's role is to assist in the relief of poverty, distress and misfortune for disadvantaged and marginalised people in Bankstown, with a focus on people from a CALD background. Council has always supported the operations of the MRC and we are delighted that they now call Condell Park home.

During the week, I had the opportunity to host a morning tea for students and teachers from Padstow Park Primary School. The students were asked to work with an artist to celebrate the new streetscape work at Padstow. The student's artwork will be displayed in the Padstow library

Last Friday afternoon, I joined dozens of other Bankstown residents in celebrating White Cane Day by participating in the Guide Dogs 'Don’t Turn a Blind Eye' walk in the Bankstown CBD. For just a short period of time, I was given the opportunity to experience what if felt like to be vision-impaired. Our local ‘guide’ for the day was Council Access Committee member Rebecca Loftus. It is important to make life easier for vision impaired people by removing obstacles along the footpath and assist our fellow community members when required.