A Day in the Life of an Anti-Graffiti-ist

You've thought about joining the anti-graffiti league but you're not quite sure if it's for you? Well, let us present Our Guide to A Day in the Life of an Anti-Graffiti-ist! If after reading this guide you decide you want to join in (and we would welcome you with open arms!) then please email the club at rotaractswb@hotmail.com :)

Warning: This guide is potentially not applicable for those anti-graffiti heroes who live a little further away and may incite jealousy!

7am: Alarm goes off, hit snooze. 7:10 am: Hit snooze again.
7:20 am: Hit snooze for the third time.

7:30 am: Wake up and get dressed in various old clothes and falling apart runners. It is important to look the part although you will be supplied with a stylish visbility vest! You may wish to add your own protective gear - old lab coats work perfectly!

[Lisa (L) and Amanda (R) model Anti-Graffiti gear]

7:45 am: Head for John's workshop aka Anti-Graffiti Central (right near Darra train station).
8:10 am: Everyone's here? The ute's geared up? Let's go!
8:30 am: That's a lot of graffiti....

But hand out a few paintbrushes....

[Adam's hard at work]

And before you know it you're almost done! Many hands really do make for light work :)

[Some of the team: Sharyn, Tim, Lisa, Amanda, Yu-Min, Karl and Adam]

10 am: We're done! Breakfast!

Anti-graffiti is generally held on the last Sunday of each month. The next anti-graffiti morning is on Sunday 31 August starting at 8am. Please email rotaractswb@hotmail.com if you want to come!

One Punch Can Kill

The One Punch Can Kill campaign is such a startling reminder that people's lives can be ruined, or even lost, in an instant, simply by one bad decision. I felt this was a really important and positive message to support and to reaffirm the fact that any kind of violence is absolutely not ok. -- Kendal Nagorcka aka Picasso from The Shak.

At the BETS day earlier this year, several of our members were privileged enough to hear Jonty Bush talk. She shared her story as a victim of homicide and challenged us to fight back against violence in our society.

Jonty is the current CEO of the Queensland Homicide Victims' Support Group, an organisation that provides support to victims of homicide, raises awareness about their needs, and aims to promote education and reform .

As part of this education and reform, Jonty, the QHVSG, the Queensland Government and concerned people throughout the state have supported the One Punch Can Kill program. "Every year far too many young Queenslanders are assaulted at parties, in bars and out on the streets. We exist for one purpose: to reverse this. All too often young people are getting hurt or even killed when they are out just trying to have a good time."

Time for Change

At tonight's meeting Anna Keenan came to speak to us. Anna is a Community Outreach Officer with the Australian Conservation Foundation and an impressive and passionate speaker.

In November 2006 Anna Keenan was the youngest (aged 21) of 85 Australians to be personally trained by Al Gore as part of 'The Climate Project – Australia' to present an Australian version of his now-famous slideshow 'An Inconvenient Truth'.

She is currently the Chair of Queensland's Youth Environment Council and International Coordinator with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Anna actually attended the UN negotiations in Bali for the next phase of the international climate protocols and watched as Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Out of her message, one of hte most memorable stories for me was an anecdote about Bali when the US was blocking proceedings. The representative for PNG, Kevin Conrad, spoke:

"And there's an old saying 'if you're not ready than get out of the way'. And I would ask the United States, we ask for your leadership, we seek your leadership, but if for some reason you're not ready to lead, leave it to the rest of us: please get out of the way." [Shorter YouTube video][Longer YouTube video]

Personally I think there's a message in that for all of us. :)

The take home message that I, well, took home, was that while big, bad things will happen with climate change, we're not yet at the point of no return. We're all in this together and we can all make a change together.

Hopefully we can have Anna come back later during the Rotaract year, possibly to talk about what we can do on an individual and local level if that interests club members. She also explained that Rotaract SWB can become a member of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition so we can also look further into that if members wish.

On a related environmental note, the Community Service committee is trying to organise a guest speaker from the Oxley Creek Catchment Association some time later this year.

Finally, it was nice to see some new faces (and returning new faces) at the meeting, we hope you enjoyed yourself and that we'll see you again soon. :)