On Tuesday 30 November President Glenn Conroy, Vice President Bea Treharne, along with Committee members, Leslie Falla and Linda Conroy from the Hawks Nest Bridge Club (HNBC) attended a presentation ceremony at the MidCoast Council Taree office where a cheque for $33,000 was presented from the Stronger Communities Grant.

With the amalgamation of the three councils earlier this year, the MidCoast Council set up a grant of over $500,000 for 2016 to be utilised throughout the council areas and made available to various community projects.

In all the Council received over 70 applications for this scheme which resulted in 17 worthy recipients being successful.

To be eligible for funding, applicants were required to demonstrate their project delivered social, cultural, economic or environmental benefits to the local community, that it addressed an identified need, and that any ongoing costs were able to be met without additional funding into the future.

As many readers will be aware, the HNBC has been fundraising to make the clubhouse a reality for several years and we were able to demonstrate that we had already raised at least twice the amount applied for towards our project.

Earlier this year the HNBC negotiated and signed a lease with the (then) Great Lakes Council for land in Yamba Street, Hawks Nest on which the Club proposed to build a Clubhouse which will be made available to other like-minded community organisations.

It was pleasing to see grants also made to the Tea Gardens Hawks Nest Pre School and North Arm Cove Residents Association.

Hawks Nest Bridge Club members are very grateful to the Council for their grant, though fund raising continues to reduce the amount needed to borrow.