Sport of course comes to mind with a plethora of options for summer and winter, outdoor and indoor. The first famous Coota exports who come to mind would be household sporting names like Les Boyd, Isaac Smith and of course Sir Donald Bradman.

It may surprise some in town to learn though that a Cootamundra boy now runs Australia’s largest touring theatre company for young audiences.

Tim McGarry has performed for over 1.2 million people with his brainchild, Monkey Baa Theatre Company, since 1997.

Tim will be speaking at The Arts Centre next month as Cootamundra hosts creative thinkers from across the Riverina and indeed around Australia for the annual Dream Big festival.

To host such a large conference is testament to the passion, creativity, ingenuity and sheer hard work of our local staff and volunteers.

Sadly though, the creative arts often play second fiddle to other achievements.

From school awards nights to the pages of this very paper, we’re guilty of favouring sporting achievements over academic and creative.

No skill is any more or less valuable and that’s the message we should be sending our young people, lest we want to see precious talent go to waste.