Every morning at 5.45 am, retiree Tony Stewart gets up, pulls on a particular T-shirt and takes his Labrador, Daisy, for a walk. Their routine takes them on a well-trodden path between Freshwater and North Curl Curl. They have become familiar faces, and in doing so, have helped to shape the local community.
Five years ago, Tony and his wife, Nada, moved from the Upper North Shore to Freshwater. He began to say ‘hello’ to the other early birds he passed along the way.
“My mantra is, ‘if you don’t say hello, you’ll never know.’ You’ll never know who’s lonely or who needs help. So, I decided to get some T-shirts printed with ‘Hello’ on the front. On the back, it says ‘Hello’ in all different languages,” says Tony.
“The great thing about saying ‘Hello’ is that it is the start of a conversation. Once you start a conversation, you are actually building a relationship.”
Tony explains that the T-shirts are given to whom he calls ‘Community Champions’. These are people who are doing thankless tasks in the local area, simply because they believe that the community is better for it.
These champions are people like Jeanette Ward who encourages the elderly to take short walks to see the sunrise, or Chris Flemming, who raises money for the mental health organisation Gotcha4Life. Then there’s Jan Ranson who refills the dog bags at Curl Curl at her own expense, simply because she wants to keep the park clean.
One particular champion is Bill Yeates, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s three years ago. He credits the organisation as being instrumental in his daily management of the disease.
“One of the biggest drawbacks of this disease, besides your memory, is you lose confidence within yourself, your own ability to have conversations and to socially engage with people and you start to get withdrawn,” explains Bill.
“When I come across this initiative it broke new ground for me. Rather than shy away from community, I now engage with community. It gives me a really positive feeling about life.”
The organisation is formally known as Come Together and there are 160 T-shirts currently gracing the backs of local heroes. Come Together is self-funded by Tony and any additional money raised goes back into the purchase of more T-shirts.
Tony explains that he wants the organisation to grow organically but he has exciting plans for 2022 and beyond. One dog park friend and Australia’s first aboriginal Senior Counsel, Tony McAvoy, challenged Tony to include an aboriginal word for ‘Hello’ on the shirt. This year there are plans to develop a shirt that includes greetings from different aboriginal lands with permission and support from their elders.
“I also want to get young people more involved,” enthuses Tony.
“If someone tells me a young person has done something for their next-door neighbour, I want to give them a T-shirt. Young people have the potential to be a great influence on each other.
“I would like to find people in other places who want to support the organisation in their local area because I would like to see more people wearing this T-shirt.
“Eventually I am hoping to take this all over Australia. It would be great if there was a Hello Day around the world, that would be unbelievable. If I can get everyone to embrace inclusivity and talk to each other, the more we get on better.”
Visit www.come-together.us for more information.
