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CELEBRATE LIVING
HISTORY
WWW.CELEBRATELIVINGHISTORY.COM.AU
Howdy Folks! It has been a long time since we
have published a mini magazine and a lot has
happened since 2019!
I hope you all have been well during this Covid
crisis and taking time out to focus on the little
things that matter. I know this time has been one
of great reflection for me and I try to focus on the
positives rather than the negatives. Thats all you
can really do.
I've been lucky to still run the Celebrate Living
History internship program as this time. Did you
know the program has been running for 9 years
now? Time sure does fly. I've had the pleasure of
welcoming Deng Feng from Griffith University in
Brisbane who helped in promoting our new book
Words from Bev
Founder of Celebrate Living History
CONTENTS
ENTREPRENEURS
GENERATIONS APART
MEET DENG FENG
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
MEET HANS SCHWEDLER
FIGHTING SPRIT
MEET DAVID PAGOTTO
SPONSORS AMD SUPPORTERS

P H O T O B Y M A R T I N R . S M I T H
Entrepreneurs: Generations Apart.
It was a huge goal to have this book
come out into the world. And there
were times where I thought having a
tangible book will never happen. But
I kept plugging along and the book
became a reality. And I am so proud
that this book can one day be shared
among generations of future
entrepreneurs. Through publishing
Entrepreneurs: Generations Apart I
was inspired to create another book
on all the casual jobs I have done
over the past 10 years. Through
these roles I met one of my good
friends Vince Vihtelic at the
Melbourne Cricket Club he always
made me laugh and made my day
just a little bit brighter. This issue is
dedicated to Vince who sadly passed
away in May at the age of 56.
Keep safe and dream big! Till next
time!
Bev Wilkinson
'Launch of Entrepreneurs Generations
Apart
Russell, Bev, Su jo and Kate
Spagetti Tree Melbourne

Meet Deng Feng
What attracts you about being an intern at
Celebrate Living History?
I am not a journalism student but Bev’s
program inspired me and makes me
remember who we are today. Without
senior’s experience and what they have done
for us. We cannot make this world better.
Being an intern at celebrate living history
you can read a lot of different stories from
our seniors from locally or internationally.
And of course, the flexible hours that we can
work on the projects any time anywhere.Who
is an older person that you admire and why?
That person is my step-grandpa, I have never
seen my grandpa because he passed away
since my father was 8. My step-grandpa
treated the family very well and he never
give up on me and always encourage me to
do whatever I dream about. He taught me to
be a better person and gave me a lot of life
experience that I would never learnt from
the school.If you could jump into a time
machine what era would you visit and why?I
have never thought about this questions
before but If I can travel back in time I would
definitely go back to when I was 6 which the
time I had chances and opportunities to be
an actor and learn piano. But I was way too
shy and I cried on the stage. If I ever can go
back I think I would choose different path of
my life and do something different and see
what will happen after 10 years.
PWWW.CELEBRATELIVINGHISTORY.COM.AU

Chocolate Chip Cookies
By Caitlin McMullen
Dotti is a 92 year-old woman who
loves to cook sweet treats. For the
past 2 years she has been coming
into my workplace every Saturday,
making me try some of her
inventions or her traditional recipes,
which have been passed on for
generations.
Some of these recipes shared have
been within her family for 70 years.
She told me that she hasn’t shared
her recipes with anyone before, so
I’m privileged not just to eat them,
but to find out how she does it. Dotti
doesn’t go by exact measurements
or steps; it comes naturally to her,
something that I aspire to at her age.
Going strong for a 92 year-old, she
loves having friends over, insists on
making me a cake every time I go
over (even though she is cooking
something else for me), and has two
chickens which she hasn’t named.
'
You will need:Whole-wheat flour 2
teaspoons of baking powder Teaspoon
of baking soda Salt Butter Brown Sugar
Sugar 2 Eggs 2 teaspoons of vanilla
extract 100g of chocolate
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
2. Use baking paper to put on your trays.
“This is an important step. If you don’t do
this, your cookies will stick to the tray;
it’s not fun to clean at all.”
3. Add three cups of flour, the baking
powder, baking soda and a tiny bit of salt
into a mixing bowl.
4. Put the butter sugar into your beater
and mix it.
5. Add the eggs and the vanilla extract
into the beater. “I’m using the hens’ eggs
today, so this recipe should taste very
organic”
6. Add the flour mixture into the beater,
then the chocolate, broken into bits. “If
you want it to be extra chocolatey, add an
extra bit of chocolate. I like to do this
sometimes.”

Chocolate Chip Cookies
By Caitlin McMullen
7. Separate your cookies and place
them into your baking trays. “I find it
easier to use your hands to roll the
cookie dough into balls on the trays”
8. Now, put them in the oven for about
15 minutes. “I can usually tell when they
are ready from the scent. But just keep
an eye on them,
because
nobody wants a burnt cookie”
“Let them cool down for a bit, as the
chocolate bits can get quite hot
when they are melted. Enjoy them
as a snack, like I do, or they are a good
gift. I make them for people’s birthdays;
homemade things are more appreciated
these days, I find”
Meet Hans Schwedler who is
founder of Laughing Life which
runs fun sessions to bring the
community together through
humour.
What advice would you give to
the younger generation?
Find your passion and purpose for
your life and go for it. Join the
University of Life as there are no
HECS fees.

Fighting Spirit
Some would say from a young age Val
French was destined for a life full of
excitement and fighting spirit.
As a little girl, Val was raised in three
different mental intuitions, inspired by
her parents desire to change the world
in their own way.Val’s father was a
psychiatrist and her mother was in
charge of social activities.
Reflecting on her time at Callan Park
Mental Hospital, Val says her desire to
change the world started at the age of
seven the exact moment her father
showed her a room packed with 50
psychiatric patients.“It wasn’t like the
hospitals I had been in before they
were country hospitals this was an
institution,” she says“There was a
toilet in the middle of the room, it was
completely and utterly open, the beds
were so together,”
“There were bugs, it was awful he said
to me, I wanted you to know what sort
of place we have come to, you need to
know what mankind can do to
mankind. This is part of the worst of it,
we need to change all this. “
As a child Val would be like her
father’s shadow following him
everywhere.“Dad’s idea was to
make me a part of everything that
was going on around the hospital.
He introduced all sorts of things
like he did in the other hospitals,
sport tennis and all that sort of
stuff,” she says“I was very much
part of it, I always went with him
all over the place except when I
was at school and gradually as I
got older I had the run of the
hospital,
“It was great, it was a tremendous
experience and from it all it
brought up that your job is to
make changes that is my life,
anything that I see I don’t think is
not fair or right I always fought it,
'
'

“I think why not that is what I was
brought up to believe that you don’t say
isn’t this terrible you do something
about it and change it,“So that’s
virtually the story of my life, change
after change I have been part of. It is
simple as you see something that is
wrong then you get cracking,“Callan
Park was probably part of the biggest
influences of my life, as far as making
decisions as to what I was going to do
with it,“It was simply meant it created
what I became, people become different
things according to their childhood.”
Fast forward to Val’s days at the
University of Sydney where she pursued
her dream of becoming a defense
lawyer.“I did social work when I started,
I wanted to be a lawyer, being a woman
you could be an ordinary lawyer but I
wanted to be up defending people that
didn’t work because women were not
allowed to in those days,” she says“By
the time I finished my course the war
ended, the men had returned from war
and they were given the first go,“We
were not able to carry on with that
degree so I became a school teacher for
three years, during which time I
got married then we came up to
live in Queensland because of my
husband.”
In 1932 Queensland was not the
sunny get-away we all know and
love. Back then Val says it was
like coming back into the dark
ages.“It was a long time ago it
was a very different world. It was
the first few years in Brisbane
that I thought was pretty boring,
when we came here I was
horrified I had one little child,”
she says
“She was three when we came up,
even she realised it was different
to Sydney,“Women stayed at
home, they didn’t even work at
tuck shops or anything like that it
was really weird place in those
days they just did nothing except
stay at home and look after the
children,

It is no surprise that Val is crazy
about debating, while she was
allowed to debate in Sydney there
was barriers in Brisbane.“When we
came to Brisbane women were not
allowed to, I was just so
frustrated,Somebody in the
debating union was doing a final
of some sort and at the last
minute the man was crook, they
thought they had to give up as it
was an interstate thing they didn’t
want to,” she says“Barry my
husband said my wife debates in
Sydney but up here she hasn’t
been able. Anyway we debated
and we won the competition and
after that I continued to do
debating,
“After that it was vey interesting
from that point on there were
other people that believed what I
was saying was right, about
women and what they should be
doing,“After the debating thing a
lot of women came with me and
we set up a debating organisation
for women.”
'
“The people in the street, sort of got
to know each other really well that
was good,“There was nothing to do,
they were not going out and doing
anything.”Val was fired up when her
husband asked her to speak about the
role of a businessman’s wife at a
corporate group.“
That made me angry to start with, I
did make the point, there was a role
for women of course with her
husband, they also had an obligation
to be herself, “she says“To be part of
the community to not just be a
woman as a mother and wife but she
also had an obligation outside of that
to the community,
“I believe in everyone doing their bit,
that was the way it was always, your
bit is not just within the four walls of
your house, your bit could be out
contributing to the community at the
same time, that was the speech I
made and it caused a huge ruckus.”

With her passion for education it
was no wonder Val trotted off to
Queensland University of
Technology asking for a job.
“I taught expression and
communication and that’s what
made me interested in journalism,”
she says“QUT visualised sending me
to America to learn how the
American’s taught journalism. I was
really interested in that, I went over
to America and set up the journalist
course, which worked out well,
“Women were not regarded as a
specimen for journalism, the
various odds and sods on the tree of
journalism was all males and they
did not think females were
capable.”Despite this Val said there
were lots of females wanting to
break into journalism.
However it was difficult to find
them work in the media.“So I took
the girls around Queensland and
asked the media to take them on for
work experience,” she says“I got
told no, and I persuaded them to let
me do so. I said its not going to hurt
you its not going to charge you
anything
“When the time came six months
later for them to graduate phone
calls were like we don’t want a
man we want a woman, the women
are more trustworthy,“I think that
was a vey good victory.”Val was at
Queensland University of
Technology for 17 years and went
on to build courses that pioneered
the way for today.
After her role as an academic and
the birth of her grandchildren
another path lit its way for Val to
conquer.“That’s when I started
Older Persons Speaking Out, I
thought older people in
Queensland were not getting a fair
go, I thought it was very important
to set up an organisation that
would act as a sort of guardian of
older people and their rights,” she
says“,

Give older people themselves, skills to fight for themselves. And to do
that, we had to train older people and give them the skills to be able to
fight for their rights,“We were fighting for the rights of older people but
also educating the community about the reality of aging. That ageing can
be fun. Your never too old to learn new skills
If Val could give any advice to the younger generation she would say the
most important thing of all is to never give up on anything, your not here
for you, you are here to make a difference.“What is the use of having a
world, if the people in it are not prepared to make a difference, we would
all be back in the dark ages because every person who dares to make a
difference contributes just that bit more to humanity,” she says“We are
all here to contribute something along the line, never give up, don’t let
the bastards get at you.
In memory of Val French who passed away on 12/03/20. I would like to
share the feature story I wrote about her in 2014.
She was an amazing person who shined the way for many future
female journalists.- Bev Wilkinson
'
'

Meet David Pagotto who
founded SIXGUN a digital
marketing agency in Melbourne
Australia.
Who is an older person that you
admire and why?
I really admire Pam Ahern, the
founder of Edgar’s Mission. Her
charity is funded solely by public
donations, with her farm looking
after over four-hundred animals. Her
passionate dedication and ability to
turn her dream into reality is truly
inspiring. She’s a remarkable
woman.The moral of the story here is
don’t stop doing what you love – it
takes time to build something
remarkable.
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