Winter night street market….re-energising a changing community

A few weeks ago a charming young voice introduced their self to me over the phone as “Tom”. He told me about a project out of RMIT that was supported by the local government – Latrobe City Council. The take home message I got was that it was about re-energising a local community that has been hit by changing economics and trying to put some life back into the
area. http://www.rmit.com/browse;ID=hp7lhirnjasmz

It seemed like a good opportunity to promote Plough Creek Cooking School. So together with Party Cupcake form Traralgon, I agreed to “have a stall”. I must say it was a little reminiscent of my childhood days when my grandfather, mother and uncle used to have shoe stalls at various markets, like the Dandenong and Croydon Markets!! (Yes, shoes are in my blood – Pop Wood was a cobbler!! Put that together with Italian heritage and of course Debra was always going to mean “buyer of shoes”).

The brief we were sent was very thorough, straight forward and relaxed. It seemed like the folk putting this Winter Street Fair together had a “good energy” about them. I was told I could sell PCH produce and I was given a run down on some of
the other local small businesses that would be there. Or simply sell up my stall however I desired. After thinking about it, I thought it was a great way to promote the cooking school. So with lots of brochures and some freshly made PCCS mini cheese tart and zucchini slice as “happy tasting samples” I packed the car and headed ‘into town’.

Cheese tart

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Zucchini slice

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Party Cupcake offered yummy cupcakes - naturally!!

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There were about 25 – 30 Stalls featuring all sorts of local small businesses, charities or organisations. Live music throughout the afternoon and evening by a variety of genres! And a very unusual stilt walker, I am still not sure what it
was!! Was it a bee, a morphed tiger, Gollum before he lost his fur? 
 
I would like to say that the organisation was great. Marquees, lights, generators, trestle tables and chairs were provided and
it made it very easy from my perspective to arrive and setup – WELL DONE and congratulations to the organisers.

A few friends dropped by for a hello and visit, it was so nice to have familiar faces saying hello.

I had a lovely Hannah hug........

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A familiar face was Russell Northe our local State Member of Parliament. Russell is also the Parliamentary Secretary for Small Businesses. Sometimes the feeling one received from politicians is that they are not REALLY interested in their constituents– but I have to say, that Russell is not like that. He genuinely seemed interested in what I had to say!!!!

Deb having a chat with Russell Northe

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I enjoyed having Ross and Mark call by and give me some honest “taste testing” on the giveaways. Neither wore a cravat but they were willing to judge my cooking efforts!!

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I was pleasantly surprised by how many locals visited the market and stopped to say hello to us at our stall. We were able to
register a lot of new names for our PCCS mailing list and there seemed to be plenty of interest in upcoming classes.

I would like to say a huge thank you to the friends who dropped by and the locals who talked to us. I do hope the organisers were happy with the event and that we see something like this happen again soon in the local community.

Check out these links for more details:

https://www.facebook.com/ReactivateLatrobeValley
http://outr.org/
It was a delight to be involved. DC xx