Australian Centre for Leadership for Women Diversity Awards

On Wednesday night I had the pleasure of attending the Australian Centre for Leadership for Women Diversity Awards in Sydney.

From the website:

"ACLW’s Awards Program commenced in 2006, culminating so far in three national awards for women’s advancement, with more than 60 national recipients being recognised and awarded, including women, men and organisations. This year is ACLW's 10th Anniversary of its Awards Program for women's empowerment. The 2016 Diversity Award refines the spirit of ACLW's Award Program as it seeks to platform in a mainstream forum, recognition for community and organisational initiatives in Australia that value and empower women in Australia who come from diverse backgrounds, and particularly from groups that are marginalised."

Dr Diann Healey Rodgers runs the Australian Centre for Leadership for Women voluntarily and entirely on her own.

We were treated to performances by the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir and a troupe of Greek dancers. The presenters included Prue Goward, Christine Forster and the speaker of NSW Parliament House Shelley Hancock who was hilarious.

I was a second place winner in the Disability category. I won because of my work organising the Australian Ichthyosis Meet. The category winner was Women with Disabilities Victoria (who I am doing some work for next week) and the third place winner was South East Centre Against Sexual Assault. Here are the two other category winners - Keran and Dagmar.

Every first place winner made a speech and they wowed the room. From domestic violence support and refugee welcoming to providing child care for women in medical research and climate change research and prevention, the work these women do is so important.

I am so honoured to be recognised in a room full of amazing, accomplished and diverse women truly making a difference In Australia.

A big congratulations to Kyri Fuss for being a co-recipient - one of the 75 beneficiaries of the Australian Ichthyosis Meet. And thanks to the Australian Centre for Leadership for Women for the award, Professor Ingrid Winship for the reference and ongoing support, the Ichthyosis community especially the attendees, the supporters of the Ichthyosis meet who made it happen, my wonderful Adam and parents, Layne Beachley and the Aim for the Stars Foundation, the Awesome Foundation, FIRST and UK Ichthyosis Support Group and my wonderful blog readers and social media followers for helping me along the way. ❤️

In my entry, which Kyri (above) provided a supporting statement for, we both said the meet was something we could have done with when we were young.

Oh and if you think my life is all pretty dresses, fancy meals and glamourous award ceremonies - you'll be pleased to know that I am grounded (literally).

After the awards ceremony at Parliament House, Kyri and I got back to the hotel, I bought some cheese and crackers, and then got changed for bed. As I came out of the bathroom, the heavy door closed on me, making me slip on the carpet and pushing me over. I hit my head, knee, shoulder and bottom. Ouch but laughing. A bit bruised now!

We stayed up til 11 pm raging to This American Life podcast (I fell asleep halfway through the first act).

Ha!

You can read about all the winners here.

 

 

These are the bloggers to watch. BUPA Health Influencer Awards 2014

I was so lucky to be involved in the BUPA Health Influencer Awards again this year. The team at BUPA few last year's winners up to Sydney to present this year's winners their awards. I love these awards - they support diversity, good writing and social good.

It is wonderful to see a diverse range of blogs - showcasing diversity - win the awards. A blog about autism, a blog about caring for elderly parents and a blog about animal welfare were among the winners.

And I was SO pleased I got to present Julie from the blog Have Wheelchair Will Travel with the award for best travel blog. When Julie accepted the award, she said she wants to give hope to all parents of children with disabilities - because when her son was born, she was given very discouraging 'advice'. DISABILITY REPRESENT.

Here are the winners - congratulations everyone!

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining - winner of Family Time

Edgar's Mission - winner of Animal Lovers and People's Choice

Lifestyle Fifty - winner of Healthy Lifestyle

Have Wheelchair Will Travel - winner of Best Travel Blog

About a Bugg - winner of Social Good and Best Overall Blog (Renee will donate half her winnings to Autism Victoria!)

The Mummy and The Minx - winner of Babies and Parents-to-be

Scoop Nutrition (not pictured) - winner of Healthy Eating

I love seeing these new (and not so new) bloggers coming into the limelight for achieving great things. Do bookmark their blogs - I've read them all and they're fantastic!

Blogging (and being noticed, making money) takes time and super hard work, whether it's a full time job or on top of your day job (like me) or a hobby. So many new bloggers ask when they will make money. I can't tell them a definitive answer. I make a little money now but not enough to quit my day job. Maybe they will make money from their blogs, maybe they won't make a cent. But to me, the biggest success factor and the most important thing is to be making a difference.

But it is the best job ever. Keep at it.

One blogger I have been reading since before I started this blog is Cate from All Cats Are Grey At Night. We met on the Vogue Forums (a definite reason for me starting this blog was the bloggers I'd read from Vogue). It's been over five years that we've known each other and Friday was the first time we met. So exciting! She's just as lovely, just as kind and smart (AND STYLISH!) as on the screen. I told her that most of my blog traffic comes from her blog roll - let's bring back the blog roll hey?!

I also spent some time with Lee from Supercharged Food - last year's overall winner. That woman can rock a play suit! And she is going great guns with her blogging and publishing career! Her generous advice was to be 'anti-strategy'. She blogs when she feels like it, when she has something to say. "Be honest, be real", she said. "Sometimes it's nice to give people a break from you", she said. She also doesn't see other bloggers as competition - and her candid revelation of earnings AND offers to mentor bloggers to reach monetary success is testament to that. She said "it takes five years to build a brand. Blogging success doesn't happen overnight." Lee and I are pictured with Matt from BUPA.

And the very lovely Sally Obermeder (Channel Seven presenter and blogger) was the keynote, talking about weight loss her career path, struggles with IVF and diagnosis of stage three breast cancer the day before her little girl was born. The ribbon that tied all of the elements of her life together was her here determination. "If I just put my mind to something, chipped away, didn't quit, I would get there", she revealed. Sally chipped away at losing weight. She got out of a job she hated. She worked many unpaid hours to get into TV. And she's in remission from breast cancer. She would say to her cancer "game on mole", handling it with humour, treating it as a challenge. She wondered "how do you raise a child if you've only got weeks to live? How do you tell them everything?" She also reminded the room that even when you've reached a level of success, "you've always got a slog of some kind". The hard work doesn't stop. She told us to "use other peoples 'can't do attitudes' to fuel your success" and encouraged us to "be your own cheerleader". Her talk was fantastic.

Here's what we ate. Prawns and artichoke, roast chicken and chocolate lava cake with mandarin sorbet.

And the day (almost ended) with wine time at the airport. God I was tired when I got home. I was (and still am) feeling under the weather with a chest infection, I was sore, plus it was a hundred billion degrees in Sydney, so I really didn't fancy travel, but the awards were so worth it!

 

 

Good news Friday

Wow! Tune into Radio Carly has been judged as a finalist in the personal stories category of the Best Australian Blogs competition!!

 

There are some great contenders alongside me - I am so proud! There were 570 entrants and 23 finalists have been selected. And it's been mentioned in The Australian.

You can still vote for me in the peoples' choice category too!

Yay!! :)

Vote for me in the 2011 Blog Awards!

Oh I forgot!

Thanks to YOUR nominations, this blog has scored a finalist place in the 2011 Blog Awards!

You can vote for me by visiting this page and choosing for Tune into Radio Carly in the Best Kept Secret category.

Check out some other great blogs while you're there!

I appreciate your votes :)

(source)

Family photo

Here is another photo from my Australia Day Award ceremony. My parents are so proud of me - it was lovely they could share the ceremony with me. They're a very special pair and I love them so much :)

Australia Day Award

Happy Australia Day! I am so proud to be an Australian - I live in a lucky country full of diversity and great opportunities.

Yesterday I received an Australia Day Award (medal) at work. I am really proud and excited, and so I wanted to share it with you on this blog. It was a wonderful day and I shared it with special family, friends and colleagues.

Here is my (edited) acceptance speech:

I’ve been asked to ensure this speech doesn’t cut into our eating time, and I’m all for food, so I’ll make it short!

It’s a great honour to receive this Australia Day award. It’s nice to be recognised for my work within the organisation and in the external community. Receiving this award is a reminder that the organisation I work for is a supportive employer that values and recognises its staff.

Thank you so much for coming to this award presentation. It means a lot to me that you’re all here, particularly my external guests – Mum and Dad (who have traveled from Albury in NSW and told a million people about my award), Jason Hill (editor at DiVine), Scott Star (he directed my sketches on No Limits and is an all round provider of humour and jackets for when I am cold) and James (Inspirational chipper – my favourite, not that I’m meant to have favourites). I also want to acknowledge Stella Young (editor at ABC’s Ramp Up) who could not be here today. And thanks to the choir, for singing wonderfully once again. I actually have a request, seeing it’s Australia Day – for the choir to sing a Savage Garden song. In case anyone doesn’t know, I am a huge fan!

Thank you also to my two managers who nominated me, and my Assistant Commissioner for supporting my nomination. The support, encouragement and love you continue to give me is amazing, and you are three of the reasons why I love coming to work here in this team.

I received this award for both my work in this organisation, and for my volunteer work. Most of you know what I do as an events planner and writer, so I’ll speak a little about what I do as a volunteer.
I volunteer in a number of areas of the disability community - I am a writer for the ABC's Ramp Up website (and a paid writer for DiVine). I am also a TV presenter on Channel 31's No Limits (6.30 pm Monday nights on Channel 31 or 44 digital). I have recently finished up as a mentor at the Chronic Illness Peer Support (ChIPS) program at the Royal Children's Hospital after almost three years. This volunteer work has only happened in the last three years, after I wrote an article about myself for Harmony Day in my organisation's national newsletter. Volunteering opportunities came up, and like a lot of things I do in life, I thought, ‘yeah, I can do that’ and so I did.

Volunteering has afforded me lots of opportunities. I have developed my presentation skills and confidence through working on No Limits (and also learnt there is no glamour working in television!). I write for DiVine, which is a website for the Victorian Government’s Office of Disability. DiVine has been a great opportunity for me, and last year I was awarded a Yooralla Media Award for three articles I submitted. I was asked by Stella Young to write for the ABC, which for me, is the pinnacle of Australian media. I love to write, so producing articles for both the ABC and DiVine is never a chore. I have also been able to meet and assist some wonderful, inspiring young people through my work with the ChIPS. ChIPS has taught me leadership skills and patience, and I have also been privileged to see young people grow and achieve their goals. I have also made so many new friends through volunteering.

Most importantly, my work in the disability community has enabled me to educate countless people about ichthyosis and disability. One of the young people at ChIPS wrote the following in my 'warm fuzzy' book on the ChIPS camp last week: 'Carly, you are very inspirational. I've realised now, that when I used to go to the Children's hospital, I used to stare at people. But on this camp, I've learned that it's not about our illnesses, but it's about the person underneath. And you have taught me that. Thank you Carly.'

Her words sum up why I volunteer. It's to make a difference to others through education, positive media, support, humour and fun. I want to help people manage and accept their own chronic illnesses and disabilities. I also want to influence the way people perceive disability and chronic illness. I may not be able to stamp out discrimination worldwide, but I may be able to make someone think twice about commenting on someone's appearance or ability, and instead, take the time to get to know them better.

I encourage all of you to volunteer – you will get so much joy out of it, and more importantly, give to those who really need assistance.