Bare to Be Different

The first "Bare To Be Different" Calendar evolved as the result of the need to raise money for new stage curtains at the Calverton Hall, South Arm, Tasmania. The idea for the calendar (which was considered quite crazy by many) was driven by Dorothy Kelly and it was not long before a band of followers, all elderly women were prepared to strip off for the cause. And in doing so they overnight became world renown as the Naked Grannies from Tasmania.

South Arm is a small town about 40 minutes from Hobart, and the Calverton Hall which started the whole Bare To Be Different journey was donated to the community over 100 years ago and has since been maintained by small but dedicated groups of local community members. Maintenance of the hall required considerable fund raising efforts and the need for new stage curtains costing in the vicinity of $5,000, suggested too many ‘soup & sandwich’ luncheons to even contemplate.

But if this crazy calendar idea was successful they would be able to raise the money for the new curtains in one effort.

No-one had anticipated the world-wide reaction the calendar produced. And the lives of the ‘Calendar girls’ was to change forever. Within days of the official launch there was media coverage and interviews from around the world. The usually quiet little Post Office of South Arm was to be held hostage to hundreds of phone calls and letters a day. South Arm had been put on the world map and in the months to come would play host to television stations locally, interstate and international. A German film crew visited to make a documentary on the Naked Grannies which was later shown in several European countries.

The first print run of calendars sold out in the first three days after the launch and from there began a regular pilgrimage to the printers to collect thousands and thousands more. And so began the story that has continued to grow with the production of a 2003 calendar, a range of merchandise items and another 2004 calendar in the final stages of production.

When fund-raising had produced enough to cover the maintenance of the hall, and people felt their lives would never return to normal and exhaustion consumed all bodies, the calendar project returned to the original designer, photographer and copyright owner and royalties were then paid to the ladies involved for subsequent calendar sales.

On Australia Day, 2002 the Calverton Hall Committee received an award for the best community fundraising idea for the year. An award duly deserved! And for the Calverton hall - well the new stage curtains are hanging, a new meeting room is built and the kitchen renovated - it will withstand the next hundred years.

In 2004 I took over the running of the calendar. Being one of the original Calendar Girls I thought the idea for this calendar seemed too good to let go. Bare To Be Different now supports the Dementia and Alzheimers Association of Tasmania as a legacy to my father Col who lived with the condition for many years. It is an ongoing tribute to a man who was himself a compositor and printer. He had a wonderfully humourous attitude to life and I know he would approve of this legacy.

Cheers
Bev Lee