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Advisory CouncilJeremy DurbinJeremy loves the environment! Its biodiversity, the plants and animals – the whole lot. He has travelled around Australia twice now – once with 4 mates, on a sponsored expedition taking homeless youth, and more recently with his partner. On this last lap of the country, he decided to stop and refuel in Perth and has been here ever since! Following an amazing working life on Fraser Island in Queensland for 3 years, Jeremy decided that the music world needed a new and exciting drummer, so for 3 years he spent his time between the drum seat and regenerating rainforests along the Sunshine Coast (Qld). Needless to say, the trees won and he's back, full time, in the environmental field working with Greening Australia (WA). Initially managing a youth environmental program, he now manages some of Greenings other interests in the Swan region and beyond. Ross Eatt
A registered psychologist, Ross spent many years in human resources and organisation development roles with Alcoa and Argyle Diamonds before joining the consulting community. Most of Ross' working life has involved people and how they work, live and interact, and how they can bring about improvement and change in their lives. He feels strongly that much of the difficulty and unhappiness that we experience with relationship and family breakdown, depression, stress, anger etc. is unnecessary and could be minimised by us being given the opportunity to develop different thought processes, outlooks and skills. True Blue Dreaming has given Ross the opportunity to make a contribution to the lives of regional youth through the mentoring programme, hoping that some of the essential life skills will be transferred to the young people involved – thereby assisting them to create a more successful, satisfying and rewarding future for themselves. Ross hopes that as these young people grow into adults, some of their learnings and skills will rub off on the communities in which they live. James Fitzpatrick.jpg) In no particular order James is a poet, paediatrician, pirate, and philosopher. His main passion is working with young people from rural and outback Australian communities. He expresses himself through poetry. He is training to be a Paediatrician, and currently works at Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth. One of his dreams is to sail around the world in a wooden boat. His personal goal is to be content, to be true to himself, and to be true to others. He has a birthmark on his right bum cheek that is the shape of Mongolia.The stepping-stones on James' life have included growing up in the Blue Mountains and Bathurst, NSW. A science degree at the Uni of New England, Armadale, followed by a year in the Australian army, prepared him for his medical degree in Perth. He was fortunate in 2001 to become the young Australian of the year for work promoting rural and Indigenous health. In that same year he traveled through outback Australia with Chris and Nigel, two army mates, on a national odyssey called True Blue Dreaming.
They worked with young people in around 50 outback communities and sowed the seeds for True Blue Dreaming, made into a reality through the commitment of TBD partner communities and countless hours of volunteer and staff effort.
Anna Rakoczy.jpg) For the past 4.5 years, Anna has worked as a commercial litigation lawyer with a large Australian law firm, Clayton Utz. Hence she has been the "legal advisor" on the TBD committee since 2007. She also participated as a mentor in 2007. Her hobbies include surfing, running, bike riding, camping, hiking and basically anything outdoors (preferably in the sun!). She also enjoys reading, dancing and relaxing with her friends. Finally, she genuinely enjoys spending time with kids.Anna is very excited about continuing to be a part of the TBD committee at this exciting and dynamic time as we determine and map its future. "We" means everyone, not just the committee - the children, the mentors, the parents and the sponsers of TBD. Each of these is essential to the continued success and growth of TBD.
Anna really believes in the goal and vision of TBD, which is to help rural youth to find and follow their dreams in life, by providing them with the friendship, advice, stimulus and support they need. It is about challenging children to be the best they can and also about letting them know that they are 'ok' exactly as they are.
Karen Ronning
Jeff Storer |
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Karen grew up on a farm near Cootamundra in South West NSW. In her teens she headed to the big smoke of Sydney to complete school and go to Uni, where she studied Recreation and then Business. It would be fair to say that she has had a few career changes to date, including work in child care, strategic planning, hospitality, rural industries, management and tourism. A few years ago, Karen completed a Masters in Tourism Management and now works in the field of marketing in the wine industry, based in Coonawarra, South Australia. She loves food, wine and travel and has particularly enjoyed taking a few years off here and there to see not only her own country, but a few special corners of the globe. She has a cattle dog called Ruby who needs to lose a few pounds and who loves hanging out in the garden. Karen has always been pretty active in her local community, but recently felt that she would like to do more, and so has trained as a Lifeline telephone counselor and has also joined True Blue Dreaming to provide some marketing and PR support. Anna enjoys working with everyone at TBD and is excited about expanding and improving the program and meeting the mentors and buddies for this year..jpg)