Champions of the West: Online service Fresh Air Daily keeps Blue Mountains and Penrith residents up to date on local news and events
RESIDENTS of the Blue Mountains and Penrith say there is much more to their region than simply tourism and one online service is keeping them up to date on everything local.
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ENTER “Blue Mountains” in Google and you will get links to cosy B&Bs, historic sites and natural attractions. But the Blue Mountains and Penrith regions are more than just a tourist destination.
For the residents of these regions, life is also about local community events and homegrown entertainment.
And Ben Curran wants to bring it to them every day through free online service, Fresh Air Daily.
“We want the opportunity to engage more with our community through local news and sport stories, weather, real estate and community events. But we also want to focus on the positive,” Mr Curran said.
The organisation is nominated in the Workplace of the Future category of The Telegraph and NewsLocal’s Champions of the West awards, a grants competition for the Fair Go for the West campaign that consists of 14 categories, each offering a $10,000 grant.
Mr Curran developed the Blue Mountains Australia website in 1996. It gets about 1.9 million visits a year and has a following of 160,000 on its Facebook page.
Fresh Air Daily was launched in October last year as a separate interface, which works as an executive summary of the Blue Mountains website and also includes news and information on the neighbouring council area of Penrith.
There has already been growth of about 30 per cent since the website launch last year and more than 1200 have subscribed to the free summary, which appears in their inbox each morning..
“I believe this could be the first independent daily news service for a local community in Australia,” Mr Curran said. “We really want to develop it further and engage with the local community.”
In order to continue the success of Fresh Air Daily, Mr Curran hopes to win the $10,000 grant to keep his idea alive in the community.
Anyone interested in nominating for a Champions of the West Grant has until tomorrow to enter.
| In association with our proud partners |
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CHAMPIONS of the West rewards ordinary people doing extraordinary things in Western Sydney to the tune of $10,000 grants in multiple categories.
The 2015 grants program is expanded this year to acknowledge the achievements of Western Sydney innovators and those making a difference in their community and respective fields.
This year’s categories include small business, education, sport, and the arts.
The Sunday Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph and NewsLocal— together with corporate partners NAB, NRMA, Crown, UWS, Origin Energy, Harvey Norman, and TAFE WSi — will reward those excelling in their fields.
Are you a Champion of the West? Click on the banner above to enter!
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