Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Mad Snake Café owner Sam Weston is encouraging everyone to check on their mates to help those doing it tough at this time of year

Transcript

Mad Snake Café owner Sam Weston is encouraging everyone to check on their mates to help those doing it tough at this time of year · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now I'll tell you what my next guess this morning.
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  Speaker 1: He's always doing good stuff and that's what I love
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  Speaker 1: about having him on the show. His name is Sam Western.
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  Speaker 1: You'll know him from The Mad Snake. Good morning to you, Sam,
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  Speaker 1: Good morning now, mate, I've seen, I always see that
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  Speaker 1: you're out there having to go in lots of different ways,
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  Speaker 1: which is what I love. And at the moment, well,
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  Speaker 1: you've launched a bit of a campaign called check on
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  Speaker 1: your Mates.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, that was important one. Yeah, tell me about that firstly, so.
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  Speaker 3: It's well, it's full of veterans, but this is actually
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  Speaker 3: part of the bigger community. It's just checking on those
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  Speaker 3: mates you haven't spoken to for a while and just
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  Speaker 3: seeing if they're okay and saying are you okay and
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  Speaker 3: doing it things like calling them or going out for
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  Speaker 3: a coffee. I've got to meet up with some mates
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  Speaker 3: in Palms the next week and just sort of making
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  Speaker 3: sure everyone's okay. And then when I nominate you, you
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  Speaker 3: then nominate five of your friends and hopefully of Darwin
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  Speaker 3: being a smaller town. You knows all it takes sometimes
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  Speaker 3: as that person just to check up on you.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. Actually, you know what, I'm not all right?
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  Speaker 3: And then it's it's what you know, and it's trying
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  Speaker 3: to stop that I guess, the suicide, the mental health
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  Speaker 3: over this period, and it's going to be a pretty
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  Speaker 3: hard Christmas period this year. So yeah, check your mates,
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  Speaker 3: everyone out there, check your mates.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon, it's a really good idea. So you
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  Speaker 1: so check on your mate, make sure they're okay once
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  Speaker 1: you know, once you sort of check on them, you
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  Speaker 1: encourage them to do that, like to kind of get
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  Speaker 1: that flow on effects going.
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  Speaker 3: So if there's one hundred and eighty thousand of us
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  Speaker 3: in the Darwin region, we should all be checked out
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  Speaker 3: by the end of the week, really shouldn't we.
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  Speaker 2: So that's exactly right theory. I reckon. It's a really
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  Speaker 2: good thing to do.
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  Speaker 1: And it is just that it's that conversation as well though,
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  Speaker 1: making sure that everybody is actually going okay, because like
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  Speaker 1: you said, it's been a tough year in so many
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  Speaker 1: different ways.
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  Speaker 2: You's been a tough two years, Yeah, it has.
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  Speaker 1: That's however long it's been, it's been hard.
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  Speaker 3: So this is this is a good one because obviously, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: reconnects you with people that you maybe haven't spoken to.
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  Speaker 3: And I think if you aren't doing well, just say yeah,
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  Speaker 3: I need help, I need whatever you might need. And
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  Speaker 3: that's you know, just spreading that message of it's ok
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  Speaker 3: to be and it is okay to be that way
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  Speaker 3: because it has been a long year, but I'm okay,
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  Speaker 3: customers okay.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well yeah, and you do get to the end
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  Speaker 1: of the year and it can be tough. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you sort of feel like you're almost at the finish
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  Speaker 1: line but not quite.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think a lot of people aren't leaving
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  Speaker 3: this year because the flights and various reasons. Obviously, interest
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  Speaker 3: rates have gone up, so money is going to be
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  Speaker 3: a big one, so all the factors that contribute to
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  Speaker 3: that mental health unfortunately, this is the year that it's
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  Speaker 3: going to do it. So yeah, this has being positive.
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  Speaker 3: This is about making sure everyone's after each other.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. And you know, of course, if you
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  Speaker 1: do need to seek some professional help, or you need
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  Speaker 1: to speak to somebody who's not a mate, if you
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  Speaker 1: feel a bit funny about it, you can always get
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  Speaker 1: in contact with Lifeline and some of those different hotlines
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  Speaker 1: as well, or you know, different fine lines to make
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  Speaker 1: sure that you know that you can get the support
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  Speaker 1: that you need. But checking on each other is a
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  Speaker 1: really big step.
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  Speaker 2: Very important.
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  Speaker 3: And also a lot of people in Darwin don't have
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  Speaker 3: their families up here, Like we're going to go into
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  Speaker 3: the Christmas in a minute, Christmas, you don't have your
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  Speaker 3: family up here.
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  Speaker 2: It does get a little bit sort of emotional, I suppose.
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  Speaker 3: So it's about looking after each other this Christmas and
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  Speaker 3: New Year and this Christmas.
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  Speaker 1: What I like is that you've said you're going to
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  Speaker 1: do something a little bit different as you've just touched on. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: some people aren't able to travel away. It is incredibly
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  Speaker 1: expensive to catch a flight anywhere from the Northern Territory
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  Speaker 1: most time of the year, but then Christmas time it
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  Speaker 1: becomes ridiculous. So tell me what you're planning on doing
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  Speaker 1: for Christmas this year.
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  Speaker 3: Way too much for my little brain, however. So first off,
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  Speaker 3: we're going to try and feed the homeless people on
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  Speaker 3: the streets of Darwin, and we'll venture out towards perhaps
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  Speaker 3: you at park and just give them a feed so
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  Speaker 3: they get something decent on Christmas Day. And in conjunction
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  Speaker 3: that we've put a call out for any families that
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  Speaker 3: may not be homeless but just might be struggling. This
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  Speaker 3: year because I've had so many people offer food, hamper baskets,
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  Speaker 3: baking goods, so.
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  Speaker 2: I think we can have a lot of food.
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  Speaker 3: So if anyone out there knows any families that are
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  Speaker 3: doing it tough, give me a bell and we'll try
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  Speaker 3: and organize some food take them to their house. And
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  Speaker 3: on top of that, we're going to do the Orphan
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  Speaker 3: Breakfast where literally, if you have no friends or family,
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  Speaker 3: come and have a coffee and just chill out in
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  Speaker 3: the cafe.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, so you'll open on Christmas Day so that people
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  Speaker 1: won't feel aligned.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I actually not a big Christmas Day person, to
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  Speaker 3: be honest with you. So this is my so I
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  Speaker 3: don't get visited by three ghosts. By humbug, I'm doing
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  Speaker 3: a Christmas thing in the cafe. So yeah, so there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people volunteering on the morning and by
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  Speaker 3: all means, if people still want to come and just
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  Speaker 3: chill and help hand out food, I'm going to need
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  Speaker 3: people to hand out food in the suburbs as well,
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  Speaker 3: try and get it down there. And yeah, we're going
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  Speaker 3: to try and do some type of morning tea lunch
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  Speaker 3: for the local homeness to come and have a feed and.
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  Speaker 2: Good on you have a good Christmas. Good on you.
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  Speaker 1: That's a really nice thing to do. And I reckon
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  Speaker 1: there'll be people listening this morning who might want to help.
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  Speaker 1: Is it too late for them to be able to help.
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  Speaker 3: No, I'm more than happy contact me somehow and we'll
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  Speaker 3: jump on Facebook. Yeah, and then yeah, I'm looking for
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  Speaker 3: people to help serve the food, hand the food out,
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  Speaker 3: drive the food around and if there's any businesses that
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  Speaker 3: want to contribute, you know, I'm looking at doing toys
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  Speaker 3: for the kids, you know, anything that can help make
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  Speaker 3: they're not so fortunate on the day a bit more happier.
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  Speaker 2: That would be awesome.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, good on you. So they can contact you obviously
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  Speaker 1: through the Mad Snake Cafe. They'll be able to find
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  Speaker 1: that on the Facebook page on there, and and yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I do reckon there'll be people who'll be keen to help.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've got it's pretty full already. But to be
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  Speaker 2: honest with you, it's yeah, oh yeah, good.
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  Speaker 1: Oh good stuff will Sam.
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  Speaker 2: It's always good to catch up with you.
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  Speaker 1: It's been a massive year, a big year for you.
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  Speaker 1: Nominated for one of the Australia Day Awards as well.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't know that you've ever really you were
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  Speaker 1: ever really trying to get yourself into the spotlight the
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  Speaker 1: way that you have. But you've done a good job.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah no, it wasn't my business model just to make coffee.
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  Speaker 1: Good on you, mate. I know that so many in
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  Speaker 1: the community appreciate the work that you do and certainly
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  Speaker 1: appreciate the business that you run and the way you
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  Speaker 1: make it a really safe space, particularly for veterans and
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  Speaker 1: those you know, to be able to come in and
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  Speaker 1: feel safe and have someone to have a chat to
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  Speaker 1: as well.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for that. And I love this community.
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  Speaker 3: Like we said, I love Darling.
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  Speaker 2: I love you, Darwin. Just don't like the crime.
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  Speaker 1: That's exactly right. That's how we all feel at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: We want to just be able to be at our
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  Speaker 1: best potential.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, well, I think that's why you do these good
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  Speaker 3: We have got a good We always talking about the
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  Speaker 3: crime and the bad stuff. Darne's got so much you know,
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  Speaker 3: positive stuff about it, Like this community is like so
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  Speaker 3: many people want to help even I'm like, wow, okay, cool.
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  Speaker 3: You know it just gives you that sense of community pride,
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  Speaker 3: doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: So it really does pick up your Darling.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, good on you. Thanks so much, Sam, thanks for
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  Speaker 1: coming in this morning. We appreciate it.