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Whyalla’s Citizen of the Year Karen Harrison has urged everyone to consider nominating a worthy community member, group or event for next year’s Australia Day Awards.
The City of Whyalla has extended nominations for the 2019 Australia Day awards to Friday, December 21 and Karen says it is vital people get motivated and put nominations in for those that have worked hard for our community this year.
Karen is a key driver of the Ripples Support Group, a community group in Whyalla that helps people in need. While honoured to win the citizen of the year award for services in 2017, Karen said the 2018 Australia Day Award had gone further in promoting Ripples and helping even more people in the community this year.
“It was amazing to win citizen of the year and it has led to a blessed year for myself and my organisation Ripples,” Karen said.
“We have now won another high profile award, attendances have been up for our meetings and it has really put Ripples on the map.”
Ripples recently won the Flinders University Rural Health SA Regional Achievement Award with a much-needed $2000 going to the organisation.
Karen said the benefit of winning any of the Whyalla Australia Day awards was that it not only recognises the work that an individual does, it also has huge benefits for the organisation they are involved in.
Whether it is a support group, community group, sporting group or charity, Karen said the Australia Day Awards can help promote their activities, attract more members and help achieve even more for the community.
“My award and these other awards has really put Ripples to the forefront of people’s minds,” Karen said.
“I’d urged everyone to think about not only the individual that it recognises but also how much good these awards can do for their group and therefore help do more good work for our community and people.”
Revised nomination forms, aimed at making their completion as easy as possible, are available from the council’s Civic Building office, Whyalla Public Library and the council’s website, www.whyalla.sa.gov.au/australiadaywhyalla More information can be obtained by calling Council on 8640 3444
The 2019 Australia Day awards will again feature the 11 awards, with the citizen, young citizen, senior citizen, sports achievement, event of the year, and six community achievement awards up for grabs.
The awards recognise individuals and organisations that have made significant contributions to the Whyalla community throughout the year or demonstrated outstanding service for a number of years and are excellent role models irrespective of their age.
Award recipients will be presented with their awards at a private function on Friday, January 25 prior to the Australia Day community celebration at the Ada Ryan Gardens on Saturday, January 26, 2019.
Nominations now close at 5pm on Friday, December 21, 2018.
ABOUT THE AWARDS
The citizen, senior citizen andyoung citizen categories reward and recognise individuals who have made a noteworthy contribution during the past year while having regard to their previous achievements and ongoing contribution over and above normal employment duties.
Outstanding contribution and community service includes areas such as education, health, fundraising, charitable and voluntary service, business, sport, arts, the environment, or any other area that contributes to the advancement and wellbeing of the community.
To be eligible, the person must be an Australian citizen, and under 30 years of age on January 26, 2019 for the young citizen category and over 65 for the senior citizen award.
The community event of the year will be awarded to either a person or group that has staged the most outstanding community event during the past year.
The sports achievement award will be presented to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the sporting community during the past year focusing on volunteer involvements in preference to individual achievements. This may cover fundraising, club administration, helping around the club with weekly duties, club maintenance and umpiring.
Community service awards recognise residents who have given outstanding service to a single organisation or field of endeavour.