Inspiring Speakers

I've been fortunate enough recently to hear two inspiring speakers who have both lived extraordinary lives in very different ways - Li Cunxin (wwwlicunxin.com) and John Maclean.

Li Cunxin (www.licunxin.com) is known as the author of the international bestselling book "Mao's Last Dancer" which details his childhood starving under Mao's China - 38 million people died in the three years before his birth in 1961 (yes, you read that right) - the long years training to be one of the world's best ballet dancers and his defection in America during a trip there. He married an Australian ballet dancer and is now a stockbroker in Melbourne. The movie of the book is going to be released in October. His is a story of intense love, vision, hope and complete dedication.

John Maclean won a silver medal for Australia rowing in the Beijing Paralympics. An accident left the budding sportsman a paraplegic but with his father urging him to see how far he could go and with friends supporting him he turned back to sport in a major way - being the first wheelchair athlete to compete in the Hawaiian Ironman, of all things. Seeing him struggling backwards up a hill in his wheelchair will be an enduring memory for me. Oh, and he swam the English Channel too! And went in the Sydney Hobart Yacht race - just to name a few things he's done. He persisted in getting back to what he calls the game of life. And now has a foundation to help kids in wheelchairs - www.jmf.com.au. You can find out more about him at www.johnmaclean.com.au. I love the title of his book - Sucking The Marrow Out Of Life. Do you do that?

Red Shield Appeal

As a member of my local charity "Communities for Communities" (www.communitiesforcommunities.com.au) I was invited to the launch breakfast of the Salvation Army Red Shield appeal. (www.salvos.org.au) It was great to be able to chat with some officers and learn more about the work they do in our community. I also then helped out on Sunday at area headquarters, happily not far from me. I greeted teams coming in from the doorknocking (lovely to see all the young people helping) and helped them organise counting and handing in their money and also did some money counting myself. I always thought counting money was a wonderful occupation but counting those $5 notes seemed pretty tiring!

It was a great community event and with everyone pitching in and with some very generous donations we were able to hand over $95,000. The gentleman from Rotary who cooked up a sausage sizzle for the collectors figured he'd cooked about 40,000 sausages during his sausage sizzling career! What are you doing to make a difference?