STORY NATIONAL

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE OLYMPIAN"

Week 12 - THE OLYMPIAN - Eloise Wellings

“I couldn’t forget what I had seen and I couldn’t let it go.”

I didn’t really know anything about Uganda until I had an opportunity to rehab my foot at a training facility in Portland.  That’s where I met Julius, a two time Ugandan Olympian.  We bonded instantly.

Julius told me that when he was training in Uganda for the Athens Olympics he found these orphaned kids living in an abandoned bus shelter.  Julius thought they were dead at first … he went over to them and they started moving.  They came out and asked him for money.  He said, "I don’t have any money – but I can give you a home." Julius asked his mum and dad if they would look after them while he ran in America to make money for them and their new extended family.  Each day I was hearing snippets of this story and of his village left in poverty by Uganda’s civil war...

Read more in the book: http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest and WorldShare. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE PHOENIX" Week 11 - THE PHOENIX - Sergei Sergienko “A bad soldier is one that does not strive to become a general." We were one of the wealthiest families in the Russian city where I grew up. But we had to leave due to my father’s connection to the criminal underworld. He eventually disagreed with them so they gave him a choice: get out of Russia or we’ll kill you. He settled in Sydney, Australia and we followed a year later. For the first couple of years we lived in the Barracks, Campbelltown - supported by a charity. I didn’t go to school excursions because we didn’t have enough money for other clothes; I only had the school uniform.  My father saved enough to send me to university to get a degree in Finance. I then took a chance... Read more in the book: http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest and WorldShare. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE RESCUER"

Week 10 - THE RESCUER - Ronni Kahn (of OzHarvest)

“What can it feel like to know that you’ve done something that impacts millions of people?”

I was an event producer.  I love food, but at every one of my events I had a lot of leftovers.  Occasionally I would take it to a charity late at night but it didn’t happen often.  I was creating all this waste and it just did not feel right.

I felt that there must be something more to my life; something bigger that I was meant for.  I was becoming restless as I wondered what I could do to make a difference.  So I thought, “ Alright, I’ll just take a little break and I’ll go and visit my sister in Israel. ”   I decided to take a trip via South Africa to see a very close friend I hadn’t seen in years…Selma...

Read more in the book:

http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx

All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest Sydney and WorldShare.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE PERSEVERER" Week 9 - THE PERSEVERER - Chris Burgess “When the guidelines don’t fit, look outside the box.” I started out with Myer in Melbourne as an in-store spruiker. This led me to an early career path with them, which was derailed somewhat when the organis ation restructured and decided I was too young to be a manager. I was 22 years old but I knew I had the ability and potential. When that happened, I knew it was time to start looking outside the box. Every morning I’d share the lift with a courier who had a bag of mail over his shoulder. I asked him what he did. H e said he cleared the post office box for the store and delivered the mail to the office 250m down the road. The courier company charged Myer $25.00 for a job which took about three minutes. I thought if I could offer customers an alternative, better priced delivery service, I could develop a solid business... Read more in the book: http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest and WorldShare. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE ROMANTIC"

Week 8 - THE ROMANTIC - Lindy Chen

“The place where you fall should be the place where you stand up.”

I’m a romantic.  I read love stories.

Most of all, I believe in love.

When I was very young I always dreamt of the most amazing love story.   I thought my dream had come true when I grew up and made the big decision to follow my older, more experienced boyfriend from China to Australia to be with him.

I was in Brisbane for only 3 months when I discovered he was having an affair.  It was like a punch in the face...

  Read more in the book:

http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx

All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest Sydney and WorldShare.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE ESCAPE ARTIST"

Week 7 - THE ESCAPE ARTIST - Ian Parkin

“Living should work for us.”

School was a prison sentence for me.  It seriously gave me nightmares.  I had a great childhood, great upbringing and a large, happy family.  I just didn’t like being in school.  So I became an escape artist...

Read more in the book:

http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx

All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest Sydney and WorldShare.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE ANGEL OF JUSTICE" Week 6 - THE ANGEL OF JUSTICE - Jacqueline Arias “It’s simply about justice. Why should people be exploited?” Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world after oil. Unfortunately, most coffee comes from third world countries where there is no social welfare, no drought relief and in many cases no payment to the farmers who grow the product. I understood injustice from a very early age. I was born in Colombia and lived in Chile as a young girl - both third world countries. As a young child in Colombia I was surrounded by stories about poverty and coffee farmers who could only afford the basics of life during harvest time. I remember many times marching on the streets in Chile with my parents for workers’ rights, womens’ rights and human rights.  At six years of age I moved with my family from Chile to Australia - a different world... Read more in the book: http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest and WorldShare. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE BARMAN"

Week 5 - THE BARMAN - Karl Schlothauer 

  "It’s where you feel comfortable personally."

I’m originally from North Queensland, where everyone says hello.  Being the oldest of four children, I would take charge to invite huge crowds over to our place for Christmas and birthdays each year.  I’ve always loved meeting new people.  

Moving to a big city by yourself - not knowing a soul - can be a really bad experience.  It can take a long time to build a good crew when you’re forced to go out alone and make friends.  Living in cities stresses people out.  It makes it hard to connect with people you don’t know...

Read more in the book:

http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx

All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest Sydney and WorldShare.

  Photo courtesy of *Jeremy Shaw.

* Photographic Portrait Prize Finalist 2013 - National Portrait Gallery

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE RESEARCHER"

Week 4 - THE RESEARCHER - Kimberly Deme 

I learnt to take control of life at the very point it seemed the most out of my control.”

"My youngest son Timothy was born a healthy 3.4kg.  I had difficulty breastfeeding and turned to bottle-feeding within a few weeks.  Within a month he developed a nasty weeping rash under his chin."

This was the beginning of a severe eczema condition.  My immediate question was,  “Did this have something to do with his diet?”   I was told,  “Definitely not."  The eczema moved to his chest.  I was given cortisone creams to apply to his chest and the eczema came out on his face.  I applied the creams on his face, and the eczema moved to his legs.  Soon my little boy had eczema all over his body and needed hospitalization..."

Read more in the book:

http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx

All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest Sydney and WorldShare.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE IMPROVISER"

Week 3 - THE IMPROVISER - Richard Maegraith

"My jazz education taught me not only the art of improvisation in music, but also in life.”

What first drew me to jazz  was the fact that when I was aged 8 or 9, I was listening to a jazz record my Dad was playing and he turned to me and said, “Do you know that they make this up as they go along?”     

That whole idea intrigued me ... 

Read more in the book:

http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx

All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest Sydney and WorldShare.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw (jeremyshaw.com.au)

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE - "THE BUTTERFLY"

Week 2 - THE BUTTERFLY - Terri Janke 

“Struggle sounds like a negative word. But struggle is where life is. Without it you would be dead.”

I spent my childhood years living in an old orange weatherboard house in Cairns, with a bedroom that faced the corner of the yard. There was a frangipani tree at the front of the yard and it had yellow-belled flowers filled with nectar - their sweet honey used to attract a lot of butterflies. My windows had no screens, only adjustable louvres – from my room I could open them up and see these cocoons in the tree, which fascinated me...

Read more in the book:

http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx

All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest Sydney and WorldShare.

Photo courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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THE SPARK - VOLUME ONE: "THE EXPLORER" Week 1 - THE EXPLORER - David Austen “Mathematics and shirt-making require similar skills." In the 1990s my brother Ian was working in the UK and I would visit him regularly from Sydney, spending most of my holidays there. It was then I was exposed first hand to Jermyn Street - an amazing place filled with people wearing bold, colourful and different business shirts. I was intrigued.  I had been working as a mathematician for just over 10 years. But these shirts just really attracted my imagination. Before too long, I needed to pursue my idea... Read more in the book: http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx All profits from the book sales will be donated to the nominated charities Coffee Kids, Love Mercy Foundation, OzHarvest Sydney and Worldshare.  Photography courtesy of Jeremy Shaw.

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'The Spark - Volume One' 

The first project from Story Nation.

A portrait storybook featuring those "a ha!" moments of 12 passionate individuals  - presented with photography and words.  These people (primarily from the Sydney, Australia community) each had a powerful reason to make an impact in music, health, retail, community development, hospitality, law, training, importing, personal development, fair trade, mail logistics and charity.

http://www.storynation.com.au/the-spark.aspx

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The Story Nation envelope that 'The Spark - Volume One' book is delivered in.

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Stamped packaging.