We will Remember

In 2001, 4 police officers died when their plane crashed just moments from the Newman airstrip. It shook the town and certianly the police offciers' families and colleagues. It was the biggest tragedy in WA Police history.

Each year now, Newman gets together to welcome back the families of the officers and raise funds for Police Legacy and those families that have lost a loved one in the line of duty. The morning starts with a ceremony to honour the police officers. The ceremony was certainly moving and makes you think about the tragic loss of life and the spirit of these officers. 8 years on and the loss of these officers still hits hard to the families and the Newman community. The location of the tragedy depicts just how tragic the accident was - so so close to making it home. It seems totally unfair.

This is the first year I have been invovled in the "Bloody Slow" Cup - the rugby game established with the Aussies v. Kiwis to raise funds for Police Legacy. 2009 is the inaugral year of the Juniors and Seniors Netball games. As players we have been invlolved with members helping organisation of the events and particaption such as radio shows, raffle ticket sales, and helping with the cleanup for the site ceremony. I was fortunate enough and certainly proud to be part of the Australian Netball Senior team. What a game it was. I honestly did not expect the support we recieved. The Newman Rec Centre was filled with a sea of Black and White to the left and Green and Gold top the right of the stadium ,and they all cheered so hard I could hardly hear the umpires.

The Juniors got the ball running with a fantastic win over the Junior Kiwis. They played awesome and certianly gave us inpsiration to get out there abnd give the same commitment to winning the game.

Geoff Stweart, our head police officer in town, had given all the senior rugby and netball palyres a speech on Thursday night which really hit home to us all - to make sure we all give the same type of spirit and commitment to the game as these police officers did in their job. I definitely think it inspired us all.

In the Seniors netball game, we trailed three quarter time, and at one stage were 4 points down in the final quarter. We lifted though, and ended up drawing the game with the New Zealand team. A fitting start, I say, with a draw to start the inaugral season. This will hopefully mean even more supporters in 2010 and hence more money raised towards police legacy.

We were very fortunate to have in our team a family member affected by the tragedy in 2001 - Debbie Ruland. We also had an ex-Newman police officer come ckto town to play in our team so it meant a lot to us to have these girls on board and kept us focussed on what the game was all about. It wasnt about an Australian v New Zealand game - it was about putting everything into the game that you could to show that level of commitment those officers did. To show true spirit and make spectators want to come back for more next year. I think both sides showed that on the day.

Later that evening there were other matches such as the Mixed & Womens Touch games and the junior rugby team v. Bayswater. This was followed by the all awaited seniors game. The Kiwis had dominated the game for several years but it was to be Australia's Day with the Seniors bringing it home for the Aussies in the final part of the game. The evening then proceeded int celebrations with music from the police Commissioner's band - The Filth - it was a fantastic evening and I am sure all the events raised lots of funds for Police Legacy and helped the families of the tragedy remember that they will always have the support of the Newman community. Well done to everyone invloved in the weekend.

On the scarpbooking front now...

The layout below was made from papers from Websters; & kaiser pearls, flowers and rubons. SO easy and simple to do!
The next layout was also made from Websters pages and also utilising brads from Kaiser; flowers from prima and Kaiser; bling from kaiser; Trimming from Websters and rubons from Kaiser.

Yes I am getting into the spirit of Christmas very early - I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! I wanted to get started on some personally made ornaments so I made this matchbox from Tags and Boxes on the Criuct and used papers to decorate it from Basic Grey. I also used an image from Collections that I modified to stage my daughters. Other elements include chipboard, papers and embelishments from Basic Grey.

The layout above was made using papers from Basic Gery Porcelain; stickers from Websters; German Scrap; letters from Jenni Bowlin and Basic Grey; and rubons from My Minds Eye.

Today I am feeling extremely exhausted from the huge week and looking forward to the new week appraoching - hopefully this will be a quiet week!

Hope you all have an easy week yoursleves!

TFL

Tenaha

xo