With the annual Indy festival in full swing on the Gold Coast earlier this month, it seemed the perfect time for Miss Indy Sarah Buller to make a special visit to Radio Lollipop.

Sarah, along with a few fellow Indy girls popped up to the ward during the busy week leading up to Indy to have a chat with some of the kids.

Handing out balloons, colouring sheets and pencils, the girls fit right in and were a hit with the kids. While one little boy hid under the sheets at first, he was finally coxed out by the ‘pretty girls’, as he liked to call them, and had his photo taken in the end.

While all the kids on the ward were keen to have their photos taken with the girls, so too were some of the dads, who quickly jumped at the chance.

For the girls it was ‘the most fun they’d had all week’, and I think the kids had just as much fun as they did. And just quietly, I think the nurses, doctors, and volunteers all enjoyed the visit too.

Recent efforts to put on a fashion show in aid of Radio Lollipop Newcastle have raised over £2500 for the charity to put towards its new studio build in 2008.

The fabulous night included a raffle and several different fashion shows from different stores around the Nroth East.

Hundreds of tickets were sold to local fashionistas and Lollipop supporters and everyone had a spectacular evening.

Radio Lollipop sincerely appreciates the efforts and support of all of the organisers of the event.

It was a huge night last Tuesday night when Ranger Stacey from the Channel 10 children’s television program Totally Wild came in to visit the children.

Earlier in the day Ranger Stacey had been filming a story for Totally Wild at Dreamworld down on the Gold Coast and had many stories to keep the children entertained. In particular she held a baby Koala who was less than 15 cm tall.

Ranger Stacey has been with Totally Wild since it began over 15 years ago and as a result was not only a hit with the children, but also their parents, volunteers and nursing staff.

During the visit Ranger Stacey met with a little girl who had been poked and prodded by nursing staff and Doctors since she arrived and would not even look at anyone. After just a few minutes of Ranger Stacey chatting with her she was talking and smiling which was something she had not done all done. Ranger Stacey really made a difference.

In the photo you can see Ranger Stacey chatting with DJ Chris from the Terrific Tuesday team.

Our sincere thanks to Ranger Stacey for coming in and making a difference, we look forward to seeing her again soon.

With the support of ABC Learning Centres, the staff from the National Institute of Early Childhood Education (NEICE) recently designed and conducted play training for all the Radio Lollipop Mater, Logan and Gold Coast volunteers. The NEICE staff provided the two hour training session over a choice of 2 different weekends. The sessions included 4 x 25 minutes activity tables including puppet making, paper craft, painting and playdough making.

The volunteers had enormous fun learning new skills and techniques with an opportunity to widen the scope of activities currently being conducted in Queensland.

As you will see in the photo of Radio Lollipop Gold Coast Honorary Chairperson Keith Hines, playdough making can be a little messy.

ABC Learning Centre Business Development Manager Loryn Feeney and her team donated their time in preparing and conducting the training, sourcing all the items used during the training from their suppliers and providing three folders filled with over 100 activities for the volunteers to use in helping them entertain the children. Our sincere thanks to Loryn, Sandra, Anne and Beck and all the NEICE team for their generosity and dedication in providing this training program.