Yes, I know the local COVID-19 cases are concerning, as we saw them increase again in recent days. And the clean-up from the recent tornado and hail storm continues. But I'm not going to write about that today.

Some days you just need some positivity, and in recent days we've had a some wonderful stories about triumphs for people in our community.

Last week, young hairdresser Mary Evans collected a gold medal at the 2021 WorldSkills National Championships, which is Australia's biggest vocational education competition. Apprentice auto electrician Sean Niemeyar from Armidale Auto Electrics also collected gold and we're hoping to bring you Sean's story this week.

When the winners were announced via a ceremony livestreamed on Wedndesday, Mary was at her employer's home, with her colleagues, and she told us they nearly blew the roof off when her name was called out!

Mary and Sean are both now invited to represent Australia at WorldSkills at Shanghai, China in October next year. Good luck!

On Friday two local businesses picked up awards when the Business NSW New England North West 2021 awards were presented.

Again it was a virtual ceremony and Bronwyn Pearson's business, Pinnacle People Solutions, was named the winner of the Excellence in Small Business award, while Meralli Solar at Uralla picked up the trophy for Excellence in Innovation.

Both local winners will now compete at the 2021 State NSW Business Awards in November. Again we say good luck!

Finally, I know I said I wasn't going to write about the tornado and storm today, but bear with me. Because last week the crew at Meals on Wheels gave us an insight into what they had to do the day after to get meals out to local homes, while the power was still out.

They managed to prepare 120 meals without power, before delivering the meals to their clients on time. It's one of the feelgood stories to come out of what was a horrible night.

Thanks for reading folks, and I hope you have a great week!

Laurie Bullock

Group Editor