Best Foot Forward – Blog 1st January 2019

As we launch into a new year, we’re very happy to be doing so with this, a new website! It’s a joyful thing to see a long-imagined concept spring to life on the screen; 2019 is looking good already. The idea of a “One Stop Shop” for MDSRC member and community clubs and events seemed like a must-have for a town like Maleny – where there are so many different community organisations, doing so many different things. But who was going to do it? Who could pull a website together that would service the 54 member clubs affiliated with our club? This is where Bruce Gibson of Digital Organics came in, trying to grasp over coffee what it was that we wanted to achieve. As our vision was laid out, he was blown away by how many groups there are in the MDSRC network and in the town. We think his interpretation skills are amazing, he’s done a fantastic job in the production of this site, capturing what we wanted in a new look. Here’s hoping that parents (checking on the when and where for their kids activities in amongst the busy bustle of family life), newcomers to town (looking for ideas on what to do in their down time), residents (who simply want to know what’s on and when), and groups planning their many calendar events without clashing with each other will find our website a useful and informative tool. In 2008 when MDSRC began, Les Fawkes generously offered his skills, and volunteered to create what became a well thumbed website for MDSRC, manning it in his spare time for the last 10 years. Taking the regularly flowing news items from the site and transforming them into a weekly electronic newsletter is another task he has willingly undertaken. The MDSRC Weekly News – a widely circulated local rag! Every copy produced is stored on this new website as a testament to a decade of your sport and rec news – making for an interesting historical record. Thanks Les, the media service you continue to provide is invaluable, and this new website the love child of your efforts. So, where to from here? Another busy, rewarding year for all of the wonderful organisations that make Maleny the vibrant place that it is. We hope that this website helps your memberships and pursuits flourish. We’re anticipating some very diverse blogs from such an array of organisations – can’t wait to read them! As a first blog, we can’t sign off without paying homage to a dear friend who sadly, did not live to see this website. Joyce Newton, Life Member of MDSRC – and so many clubs – in honour of her close to four decades of continuous community involvement, was as passionate about “Getting it done” as she was about everything else she achieved in our town. We have it on reliable authority she was there in spirit the day that the long-awaited Maleny Aquatic Centre’s site was finally given the sign off by the Sunshine Coast Council. Joyce is a shining example of what one individual can do by harnessing others in positive, forward motion. She spent the last 15 years of her life energetically engineering an aquatic centre for the Hinterland as a reality for everyone. Now there’s a blog waiting to be written…..so we thought it appropriate to illustrate this first blog with an image of Joyce, happy amongst the community groups she loved. Follow your dreams everyone and keep on smiling.