Here are some sneaky highlights from my Love Your Work interviews - some of the best advice from South Gippsland and Bass Coast locals!

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Saving the world for 81 year old Betty McLaughlin was a very good thing, she says, but it wasn’t much fun! That is, not until she found her song in South Gippsland.

Betty and her partner certainly had some reservations about leaving their spacious five acre block in the hills of Thorpdale South, to move into a retirement village. It was a pretty big change, but now in their 80s, the property had become harder to manage.

A former social worker, administrator and facilitator, Betty has worked to help empower women farmers in Africa. She is also one of the founders of a group that aims to spread singing around the South Gipsland region.

I hope you enjoy this lively conversation with one of our wonderful South Gippsland elders.

Catherine Watson is the Editor and Publisher of The Bass Coast Post. She’s had a long career in journalism, and is well known for giving us this alternative source of news and commentary.

It’s an online magazine written by and for residents of the Bass Coast.

The Post strives to deliver a balanced perspective of the issues we have here. It tends to attract left-leaning people, however in this interview Catherine puts out an invitation for more right-wing readers and writers, because she loves hearing an intelligent, well-informed person arguing for something in a way she hasn’t thought about before. The ‘Andrew Bolt’ of the Bass Coast – "I would love to hear from them,” she says.

In the meantime, Catherine has unwittingly become involved in a six year community campaign to preserve Western Port Woodlands. This is Bass Coast’s last functional forest – and she says that despite all odds, the 500 members are about to succeed in protecting it.

I hope you enjoy this conversation in Wonthaggi with Catherine Watson.

In healthcare, often mighty achievements happen under the surface, beyond our sight. Andrea Curtis, a Diabetes Educator in Leongatha, is driven by the need for regional communities to have access to excellent care.

Andrea has created unique programs to support local children, their families, and pregnant mothers with diabetes. Meanwhile, "AI technology is now exceeding what we can do as humans to manage diabetes," she says, which is pretty mind blowing! She also provides great advice for anyone with a pre-diabetes or diabetes diagnosis.

In a separate non-related initiative, in the second half of the interview, Andrea discusses how she's leading a local fundraising push for the McGrath Foundation. She explains that while the McGrath Foundation was initially intended to help people with breast cancer, they've expanded the program and are now rolling out care nurses who provide free support by partnering with anyone with ANY TYPE OF CANCER, Australia-wide. This is enormous – as it will give people clinical and emotional support, while helping them to navigate their whole journey through the health system. Huge.

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How can we best look after ourselves as we age?

In this conversation, highly experienced Myotherapist, Marsha Livingstone provides advice as well as exercises we can follow along to, in order to improve our posture, and balance our strength. She also has some great motivational words to help keep us all moving.

Marsha has treated musculoskeletal pain and dysfunction for nearly 30 years. Based in Leongatha (Vic), she is passionate about empowering us to help our bodies.

The first thing that strikes me about Sandy Ryan is his humility. He’s a self-confessed water addict, in particular for surfing massive waves.

Well known on Phillip Island and to surfers around the world as a big wave surfer, Sandy’s always been drawn to a great surf break. In his humble style, he’s uncomfortable to put a size on the waves (but confesses they’d be up to 60 feet high). You see, to Sandy, it’s not about the height of the wave, it’s about the lived experience.

So without even dipping a toe in the water, I had a chance to hear first-hand what it’s actually like to be out there - as the adrenalin kicks in, and the jet-ski whiplashes you onto a big wave. He tells us what happens next.

Marty has the magic sauce to help transform a regional town. It's an insightful and personal conversation with the wonderful Marty 'Moo', widely known as the Unofficial Mayor of Meeniyan. He's just an extraordinary community builder.

In Meeniyan and beyond, Marty ‘Moo’ Thomas is a household name. In fact, it’s hard for me to think about the Meeniyan community without thinking of Marty.

His kind, spirited nature reflects a range of meaningful community achievements, and it’s no surprise he was nominated for citizen of the year in 2021.

Over the last 16 years, Marty’s helped to shape Meeniyan with his award-winning restaurant Moo’s. It’s success has helped attract other businesses to the town, where his enthusiasm and dedication led him to being President of the Tourism & Traders Association. Not to mention Marty Gras …. his annual sparkling fundraiser that attracts people from far and wide.

He's been in hospitality his whole life – and says that it’s always been his passion to make people feel happy and special.

We spoke on the phone before this interview - and my impression was that he’s very community focused, modest, kind, and with an infectious enthusiasm. I couldn't wait to get to know him better, to hear his story, and find out what it is that makes him tick.

How do you start kids on a positive, healthy pathway?

Walking into Steve's house, I immediately see two scuba tanks. It’s funny how sometimes inanimate things represent so much passion. Steve is a born teacher, driven to protect our marine environment. He's a fervent scuba diver and marine expert whose beautiful images on social media show our stunning sea life here on Bass Coast.

As a former school teacher and sports coach, he's been dedicated to helping kids make positive choices, having discovered something that in his experience keeps them out of trouble.

Jane Coker is a community gatherer, a confidence booster, and a talented enabler of everyone's vocal chords ... including mine! It's not about performance, it's just about the simple joy of singing and getting together with others.

Can you sing? I love singing but I can't sing in tune. Sometimes I think I sound ok when I'm singing with gusto ... but my family never agree.

Well, it's lucky for me that Jane Coker is today's guest. She's got a huge amount of singing experience, and she might provide some hope for me and my singing ability.

The first time I met Jane she was welcoming us to a new singing group, totally in her element as she walked around strumming her ukulele and warming us all up with some fun (although slightly incriminating) exercises, which made it all the better. We were singing before we knew it.

With a beautiful focus on harmony and laughter, Jane leads community choirs, trains singing leaders with Community Music Victoria, and practices Alexander Technique.

From casual singing sessions to huge choirs, her approach is that everyone can join in, no matter how worried they are about sounding rotten!

I couldn't wait to talk to her and find out which aspect of her busy, music filled life motivates her the most.

A SNEAK PEAK:

Jane Coker's personal values are equality, inclusion and fun.

#loveyourwork #personalvalues #mentalhealth #FulfillingWork #passionwork #communitymusic #communitychoir #communitymusicvictoria

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