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- 21 October 2004
Honourable Member for Strathfield Christmas Card Competition
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Page: 11862
Ms VIRGINIA JUDGE (Strathfield) [5.11 p.m.]: I am one of the luckiest members of this Parliament today. Approximately 100,000 students attend schools in the electorate of Strathfield, an electorate I am proud to represent. It is a great responsibility to represent an area with such a mighty tradition for education, and I take that responsibility very seriously. Talent is so abundant among the local young people in Strathfield that I decided to publicly celebrate the achievements of the young students by introducing the Strathfield community Christmas card competition. I wrote to local public and private schools and invited year 3 students to create a design for my 2004 Christmas card. I was delighted with the refreshing and insightful entries that students submitted to my office.
It was charming to see that students viewed Christmas as being not about presents but as a time of peace and a reason for harmony across this fantastic planet of ours. I believe that the imagination of a child can actually unite a community. I received entries from Croydon Public School, Croydon Park Public School, Enfield Public School, Presbyterian Ladies College, Santa Sabina College, Strathfield South Public School and Summer Hill Public School—all excellent schools that provide our young people with wonderful educational opportunities. The standard of the artwork received was absolutely outstanding. In early October I held a function at Westfield Shopping Centre, Burwood, to celebrate the entries in a public display and evening.
The judging evening, on Thursday 7 October, was a complete success and attracted late night shoppers and passers-by from all reaches of the area. I thank the great judges, who donated their Thursday evening to the excellent cause of local youth creativity. They were Superintendent Catherine Burn of the Burwood Local Area Command, who is doing a wonderful job in a particularly demanding job; Mr Doug Sutherland, President of the Burwood Chamber of Commerce, and former Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney, who is doing a sterling job with the local chamber of commerce; and Mr Hassan Moussa, President of the Croydon Park Chamber of Commerce, who has been instrumental in establishing a fantastic main-street program where small businesses operate. These fine representatives of our local police and business communities carried out their duties as judges with sensitivity and taste, and I wish to thank them for their time and dedication. I am glad I did not have the difficult task of judging the entries!
It is my pleasure to be able to announce the winner and runners-up in my 2004 inaugural Strathfield community Christmas card competition. The winner was an extremely gifted year 3 student at Enfield Public School. I congratulate this young boy, whose artwork will adorn my 2004 Christmas cards. He will no doubt flourish further in his artistic abilities as he grows. I would love to mention his name but I thought it might not be appropriate because of privacy issues. However, he is a wonderful young student in year 3 at Enfield Public School. The judges were extremely impressed by his use of colour as well as his grasp of Christmas-related themes. He communicated an inclusive and warm Christmas message through his artwork that will most certainly touch the recipients of the Christmas cards, which I will hopefully organise very soon.
In addition to his special certificate, the winner will have his design spun into a wonderful rug by Designer Rugs of Leichhardt. The owner of that business is going to give the rug to the family, which is a wonderful gift and symbol of his work. I thank Yoshi Tahl of Designer Rugs for his kind donation of the rug to the family of the winning student. Enfield Public School will also receive $100 in appreciation of this young student's fantastic achievement. The runners up were from Croydon Public School, Croydon Park Public School, Presbyterian Ladies College, Santa Sabina College, Strathfield South Public School, and Summer Hill Public School. Each of the seven runners-up will receive a box of watercolour pencils and a parliamentary memento, as well as special certificates.
I am planning to visit the schools of all participants in the next few months to present all students who entered with special certificates marking their contribution to the competition. I thank the judges, schools, students, teachers and parents who made this competition possible, as well as Westfield at Burwood, my electorate office staff, and volunteers who set up and pinned up the many entries. I hope that in 2005 the competition will generate even more interest from local schools and will provide the opportunity to celebrate even more young flourishing local talent that is just so abundant in the youth in the seat of Strathfield.
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