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James Griffin Member for Manly today announced Sam McCourt as Manly’s Local Woman of the Year. Sam, who has been a long time supporter of various Manly charities and all round community legend, launched the Northern Beaches ‘Viral Kindness’ initiative during the Covid-19 restrictions. She has since gone on to develop the Kindness Coffees concept which is launching shortly for vulnerable community members in the Manly area.

Ms McCourt, who was previously an Oncology Nurse at Manly Hospital, helped found ‘Viral Kindness’ in March 2020 to assist people across the Northern Beaches during the Covid-19 pandemic. The group today has over 3,000 members and has supported people in a variety of different ways. It connected the community at a time of crisis and demonstrated the positive impact that the actions of one person can have.

Restrictions at NSW schools will be eased to allow parents to enter school grounds, dancing activities to proceed and singing groups to recommence in a COVID safe way after the state recorded 47 days without locally acquired cases.

From Monday 8 March, school communities in Manly are set to benefit from the easing of the following restrictions:

Students from Kindergarten to Year 9 in the Northern Beaches are encouraged to jump into reading with the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge now open for 2021. 

The challenge encourages students from all education sectors to read for leisure and pleasure by asking them to read between 20 and 30 books, depending on their challenge level, from a reading list of quality literature. 

Last year saw a 5 per cent increase in student participation in 2020 during the pandemic, with almost nine million books read.

Member for Manly, Mr James Griffin urges students to get involved in the challenge.