In the last six months there has been a joint meeting of the Campaspe Shire and Murray River councils, preceded by a call by Murray River Council chief executive Terry Dodds for the councils to present a joint front wherever practical and possible.
The C4EM organisation has been singing from the same hymn book and has incorporated the close link of the two communities in the new logo’s design.
C4EM chief executive Deanne Armstrong said the thinking behind the logo was to create a feeling of water, land and environment.
“The dots mean collaboration and the ‘E-M’ joined together is us promoting Echuca-Moama further as being one community,” she said.
It was created by J2 Content Creation director Jason Clymo, who had a significant role to play in the evening.
He provided the expertise behind the planning, development and Wednesday evening’s launch of the Dare to Dream project.
It involved five participants, including the recently-awarded Campaspe Shire Young Citizen of the Year Dimity Pearson, who has also been recognised with the Fairley Leadership Peter Marks Scholarship.
Dimity along with Dottie Wilson, Tara Arlow, Grace Andrews and Amanda Mitchell provided the content for the video, designed to promote the involvement youth can have in decision making and the future of the region.
The Dare to Dream video will eventually be available on the C4EM website.
“We are hoping to promote the video to youth groups and other community organisations. The five girls will continue to have the support of C4EM,” Ms Armstrong said.
C4EM chair Dean Oberin, in his report to the annual general meeting, said the group had evolved and changed since its inception.
He said the next step was to enhance its footprint, which would be done with an expansion of its staff and involvement in other areas of the community.
“C4EM will employ administrative support staff to support Deanne.
“But the group is currently as strong as ever. Membership is an indication of a group’s relevance and ours is in a buoyant position.
“Our engagement with local government is healthy and we have not only survived some very challenging times, but also remained optimistic and confident of the future,“ he said.
Mr Oberin said the organisation was in an extremely healthy financial position, which would be a launching pad for its ongoing work in Echuca-Moama.
Ms Armstrong said the establishment of a collective for manufacturing organisations and the successful partnership with the Love Me Love You organisation — throughout its Welfare Warrior mental health program — were high on her list of achievements for the last 12 months.
"We hope to be able to add the establishment of CCTV cameras to that list in the not-too-distant future,’’ she said.
Along with the Fairley Leadership Program, which culminated with the establishment of the Peter Marks Scholarship, in honour of the former Foodmach partner, there has been a long list of developments in 2021.
“Our charity golf day partnership with Rich River continued to thrive and our new website should be up and running shortly,” she said.
Ms Armstrong said there were several smart business people involved in C4EM and investigating opportunities for the group would be high on the agenda.
"Going forward we plan to open the doors to events we run to non-members, which in turn we hope will attract new membership opportunities,“ she said.
