Dan's shoes helping Haiti

October 17, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
2 Comments

Dan.JPGDan Widdowson is part of the breakfast radio team on Sydney’s 103.2 but he’s probably best known around the rest of the country as being one of the hosts of Channel Seven’s Saturday Disney from 2000 until the beginning of last year.

Dan and I were part of the team that traveled with Compassion Australia to Haiti and the Dominican Republic in April this year.

Dan’s smelly old Converse shoes weren’t looking too good back in April and they’ve completely fallen apart now – but that won’t stop Dan from finding a new use for them.

He joined me on the phone from Sydney this morning on 98.5 Sonshine FM.

Dan tells the story of his old favourites.

So here’s how it began. My wife announced that I was no longer to wear my favorite pair of shoes. Just like that, my most loved item of clothing I have ever owned was to be thrown out! After begging and pleading for a good ten minutes, I convinced her to let me have a “Good-bye shoe day.”

It was on this “Good-bye shoe day”, October 9th, that I realized I did not have the courage or will power to throw the shoes out… so whilst on air I tore them to pieces in a loving farewell moment. It was at that very moment that the smell hit, to call it, “heaps bad” would be an understatement. It was truly rotten.

The next obvious step was to place the stinky broken shoes in Rays office. Ray didn’t find this very funny. Fair enough. However, once he got past that angry outburst and the vein in his forehead died down, he suggested I auction off the shoes to raise funds for a cause that is close to all our hearts here at the station… children in Haiti.

So now my shoes are on ebay and you are welcome to bid. They’d make a great… umm… you could use them for… er… ok, they’re useless, but you can help the beautiful children in Haiti by bidding!

So, if you want to help some children in Haiti and grab yourself some old smelly shoes, just head to Dan’s eBay listing for the shoes and get bidding. At the time of posting the bid was $516.

If you want to hear us reminiscing about our trip to Haiti as well as talking about the shoes, just click play on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR171008_1108.mp3]

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Cinderella on Ice

October 17, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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Cinderella.jpgAmazing.

It’s hard to find the words to describe the Imperial Ice Stars production of Cinderella on Ice. The athleticism, strength and skill of the skaters is beyond incredible.

Pauline and I saw the show on Wednesday evening and were thrilled by the performance. I had seen their Swan Lake on Ice a couple of years ago and so I knew some of what to expect but there were still plenty of surprises.

You can get a small taste of the show by watching this video.

While I have trouble even standing up in a pair of ice skates, these performers just keep adding to the degree of difficulty with their perfect triple flips, triple toe loops, double axels, death spirals, camel spins, Bielmanns, triple throw axels, awe-inspiring aerial gymnastics and their performance specialty of incredible lifts and lift sequences, as part of their unique style of theatre on ice.

I guess we should expect greatness from such a company with the Imperial Ice Stars boasting 25 World, European and National Championship skaters who between them have won over 200 competition medals.

The Imperial Ice Stars is comprised of the cream of Russian skating talent, the majority having been coached and schooled by Russia’s leading coaches, and some from as early as 4 years of age.

Their amazing feats are made even more spectacular by the fact that their ‘ice rink’ is only the size of a theatre stage.

More than two million people across five continents have been swept to their feet by The Imperial Ice Stars’ adrenaline-infused performances. The Imperial Ice Stars have performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues, from Sadler’s Wells in London’s West End to the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore, and from Montreal’s Place des Arts to Moscow’s Red Square.

The Imperial Ice Stars specialise in performing theatrical ice skating in the intimacy of the theatre. Synonymous with innovation in the skating world, The Imperial Ice Stars are renowned for their daring on the ice and unique style of story-telling.

Cinderella on Ice, their third production, continues to break new ground in the genre of ice dancing. Stunning skating feats, some only seen in Olympic arenas and some never seen before, are performed within the confines of a frozen theatre stage, including breathtaking high speed throws and incredible lifts and lift sequences.

If you ever get the opportunity to see any performances by the Imperial Ice Stars I suggest you grab that opportunity with both hands.



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National Ride to Work Day

October 15, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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ridetowork.jpgDid you cycle to work today? I did. 🙂

It’s National Ride to Work Day in Australia.

The day is heavily promoted by Bicycle Victoria and has yet to make a real impact on this side of the country but I’m happy to support anything that encourages cycling.

Here in the west we have BikeWeek much earlier in the year and that’s generally when the local population is encouraged to dust off their bicycles and get riding.

According to the National Ride to Work Day website, there are many reasons to get on your bike.

Here are some great reasons to give riding to work a go.

1. Health – feel great and reduce your likelihood of suffering from obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
2. Save money – reduce the costs associated with driving to work or catching public transport.
3. Help the environment – reduce your greenhouse gas emissions.
4. Everyone is doing it! – avoid traffic jams and commuter congestion by joining the bike riders

I reckon they’re only just scratching the surface. There are dozens more reasons to use two wheeled transportation.

Are you a cyclist? Why do you ride?



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In conversation with Nancye Hayes

October 15, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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Nancye Hayes has performed in many major musical productions including Cabaret, Chicago, Sweeney Todd and Showboat. She has also worked behind the scenes as a choreographer and director. Nancye has appeared on television in programmes as diverse as Home and Away, The Dismissal, and Spicks and Specks. She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1981.

It would take far too long to list all her career achievements so I’ll just say that Nancye Hayes is a true legend of stage and screen.

I had the opportunity to talk to Nancye during my morning radio programme on 98.5 Sonshine FM today. She was a delight to meet and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to chat with her. You can hear our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

Nancye is in Perth for Australia’s Leading Ladies, an amazing concert event with the WA Symphony Orchestra at the Perth Concert Hall tomorrow, Friday and Saturday evenings. The show features Rachael Beck, Rhonda Burchmore, Judi Connelli OAM, Sharon Millerchip, Geraldine Turner OAM, Anne Wood and conductor Sean O’Boyle.

The seven magnificent leading ladies of musical theatre will perform classics from The Sound of Music, Cabaret, Miss Saigon, Chicago and many others. As well as performing, Nancye will take the additional roles of director and compere.



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Violent Poverty – Blog Action Day 2008

October 15, 2008
by Rodney Olsen
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BlogActionDay.jpgHow desperate are you to see an end to poverty? We have the means to do it but do we have the will?

In April this year I saw the frustration of extreme poverty boiling over into violence. I was in Haiti, the least-developed country in the Americas where 80% of the population is estimated to be living in poverty. Haiti now ranks 146th of 177 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index (2006).

I was there with other Australian radio broadcasters to see the work of Compassion Australia. We had planned to be in the country for around a week to visit a number of projects but just a day after we arrived riots took hold in Port-au-Prince our hosts felt it would be safer for us to leave as soon as we could.

Our team managed to get out of Haiti under some extremely trying circumstances. It was very difficult getting to the airport and at times we were in very real danger. We had to dodge barricades of burning car tyres and rioting mobs. We were finally led to some armed police who escorted us to the airport.

When our plane finally left the ground I was filled with a mix of emotions. As I looked out the window at the dozens of fires around the small nation’s capital I was relieved that for us the danger had passed but I couldn’t help think about the millions of people we left behind who couldn’t afford to put food on the table for their families. Many people were actually eating dirt to try and survive. I remembered looking into the faces of the children within Compassion projects and seeing a hope for the future and contrasting those faces with those outside those projects, like the children who ran past our vehicles with fear in their eyes as they fled the riots.

The riots were about the lack of food in Haiti and the incredible price rises which had put even basic food items out of reach for the majority of the population. The people of Haiti just wanted the government to take their plight seriously and to do something to save the lives of their families who were literally starving to death.

Faced with the enormity of the situation the Haitian people took extreme action. Back home we complain that the world financial crisis makes it tougher to buy the stuff we feel we deserve. In countries like Haiti all they want is for those of us who really have more than enough, financial crisis or not, and have the capacity to make a difference, to realise that we still have the power to make an enormous dent in the problem of poverty.

Since my visit things have become even harder for the people of Haiti with recent storms destroying life and property.

If you feel that poverty is too big to tackle can I encourage you to sponsor a child in Haiti or another developing country? I’ve seen the difference it can make. You may only be able to make a difference for just one child but imagine if it were your own child. Wouldn’t you want someone to make the difference for just that one?

If you’d like to hear a radio report I compiled for Compassion Day after returning from Haiti just click the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post. The audio begins with the delightful voices of dozens of Haitian children from the one Compassion project we were able to visit before our trip was cut short.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/COM150508_1107.mp3]



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