My experience at the DSR (part 3) - more media releases! and... burritos

This is it, the final stretch.

I have just four days left in my work experience at the Department of Sport and Recreation and I don't know what I will do when it is over (other than sleep in on Mondays again).  It has been a part of my life since January and it will be strange when it is gone.   

My main focus continues to be writing media releases but this is something I enjoy and I have a lot of freedom in what I do.  I get to identify a lot of story ideas myself and choose which ones I will work on.

Here is one story I wrote recently if you are interested.

I've begun to see a bit of my work showing up in newspapers and I find it very satisfying.  Sometimes it has very little in common with my initial media release, other times it is almost the original release word for word.  The journalist side of me might frown upon that but the PR side of me is proud that I can present a media release in such a newsworthy fashion that they run it with little changes.

We have been doing a bit of work towards getting local governments more involved and sharing any positive stories they come accross.  We have had some very good story ideas submitted and some of they are quite amazing.  We hear of kids with disabilities participating in sport for the very first time, participation rates doubling in certain areas through KidSport and even the creation of entirely new leagues to cater for the increase in demand.

One of the things I worked on recently was a few templates for local governments to use so they can easily create stories of their own when they come across something interesting without having to go through the department.  It should free up a lot of time for us as we cannot possible cover every good story idea that comes in.  Not every local government has a PR team and it is nice that they can now share some of the great results we are seeing with KidSport independently.

I also sat in on a few more meetings these past few weeks and have had an opportunity to voice some of my thoughts on KidSport and our co-operation with local participating governments.


Oh and I discovered the most awesome burrito shop ever.  Sadly I discovered it too late and there isn't possible enough time to sample all the possible combinations!

Until next time,


Luke