9 minute read
Citizenship award winners announced
Volunteers celebrated at Citizenship Awards
Nineteen local recipients were recognised at this year’s Citizenship Awards ceremony for their outstanding contribution to the Lane Cove community.
The awards ceremony, which coincided with National Volunteer Week, was opened by Mayor of Lane Cove, Clr Pam Palmer.
“With such busy lives it can be difficult to find time to give to family, to friends, let alone to the wider community,” said Mayor Palmer.
“Thankfully in Lane Cove we have a strong history of supporting each other and relying on strong connections in our community. It is through these strong connections that we find ourselves sharing nights like this with familiar faces, whilst also welcoming new faces as we come together to share in the spirit of community”.
Husband and wife team Amanda
Harrison and Frank Hamersley
were named as the 2018 Citizens of the Year.
Amanda and Frank both go above and beyond to form the backbone of so many worthwhile community activities.
Amanda is an accomplished artist in her own right, and has been coordinating the Greenwich Village Arts Trail for the last six years. This open studio event held in November each year is an opportunity to showcase local artists and in 2017, a record 26 artists were involved.
Frank has been the head of the Greenwich Sporting Club since 2015. In addition to his role as team captain, he is also a fully-qualified referee. Frank is always at games early, setting up and running the line as well as organising the match card at games each week.
Amanda and Frank are also stalwarts of the Lane Cove Swim Club, having been members for around 25 years. Frank manages the Saturday morning races point score and his IT knowledge has helped the Club roll out new online registration systems and software to support swim meets and club competition.
Amanda has been made a life member of the Club, and provides invaluable support to the competition program, Saturday morning races and learn-to-swim. She has been on the committee for over 10 years and, as the Saturday morning race secretary, oversees race registrations and the annual race calendar.
Frank is also dedicated to his involvement in the local Scouting movement.
Several Community Service Awards were presented on the night. Recipients included Maureene and Keith Smith who organise the twiceyearly Huge Plant Sale at their home in Lane Cove North, and have raised over $73,000 for breast cancer research over the past eight years.
Keen gardeners, Keith and Maureene have lived in Lane Cove for over 30 years. Their commitment has resulted in the donation of the time required for collecting, propagating, replanting, nurturing and organising these plant sales.
A Northwood resident since 1961, Mary Rossi OBE was also awarded a Community Service Award for her valuable contribution to the North Shore Women’s Benevolent Association, a notfor-profit organisation established to support women and children escaping domestic violence. The group recently opened a hostel called Mary’s House, and in recognition of the significant financial support Mary provided, there is now a dedicated space inside the hostel called the ‘Rossi Room’.
Mary raised her 10 children locally and has a long history of community involvement, including chairing the St Margaret Hospital Board.
Another Community Service Award recipient was Max Thorpe. A Longueville resident for the past 50 years, Max has made a significant contribution towards increasing the wellbeing of older residents and their carers.
Following his retirement as a physician, Max started volunteering with Sydney Community Services. In early 2017, Max embarked on many months of visiting Lane Cove GPs and health professionals, working with his contacts in the health sector to see how future partnership models between health and community services could benefit local residents. Max is also a member of Lane Cove Council’s Age Friendly Committee.
Leadership Awards were presented to Natalie Panzarino and Karyn Gojnich.
Natalie Panzarino leads the way on a range of community advocacy initiatives. She campaigns for the welfare and re-homing of retired greyhounds and co-wrote a book called Pointy Pembleton to help to raise funds for Greyhound Rescue. Natalie has also led the way with the Got A Pen initiative, aimed at providing stationery to school students who lack the basics they need to actively participate in class and has so far put together and distributed more than 1,200 kits to kids in Sydney.
Karyn Gojnich has been a life member of the Lane Cove 12foot Sailing Skiff Club since 1970. Karen’s Leadership Award recognised her invaluable contribution to the Club through providing coaching, advice and mentoring to other parents as well as practical support to Club coaches. Karyn has had an active role in the running of the Club’s Learn to Race and Learn to Sail programs, and is currently the Training Coordinator and Membership Treasurer.
The Young Achiever Award recognises a local resident, aged 12 to 25, for achievement in any facet of life. This year’s recipient was 23-year old
Arran Weir.
Husband and wife team Amanda Harrison and Frank Hamersley were named as the 2018 Citizens of the Year.
Lane Cove Councillors with the recipients at this year's Citizenship Awards ceremony.
Arran is a role model for members of Lane Cove Taekwondo. As a founding member, Arran has built this familyfriendly sports club from a modest two members to over 300 members today and is described as a cheerful, helpful and community-minded individual.
The Access and Disability Award recognised the work of Caitlin Logan. Caitlin is a 27-year old Medical Scientist who lives in Lane Cove and works as a researcher at Royal North Shore Hospital in the laboratory of Ageing and Pharmacology. Her work involves de-prescribing medications in the elderly population in order to decrease the falls and cognitive decline that is associated with taking multiple medications. Caitlin also volunteers with the Disabled Alternative Road Travel Service, also known as DARTS.
Committee members from local arts groups were recognised, with Kay Freedman and Diana Hallowes receiving awards in the Music, Art and Culture category.
Actively involved on the Centrehouse Management Committee, Kay Freedman has made a significant contribution to the success of Centrehouse over the past 10 years. Kay has also been involved with a number of other community organisations including Girl Guides, Sea Scouts, Lane Cove netball and soccer clubs.
Diana has been a member of the Lane Cove Art Society for the past 20 years. In 2010, she joined the committee and quickly began to help with the newsletter taking over the write-ups for their monthly demonstrators. Over the years Diana has happily increased her input to ensure that the committee’s work continues smoothly.
Sally Kennedy was presented with the Sustainable Citizen Award for her passionate campaigning for the protection of prime agricultural land and drinking water catchments from invasive coal mining and coal seam gas. Since 2014 Sally has led meetings, door knocking drives, stalls in Lane Cove Plaza, as well as community events and talks to raise awareness of the issues.
Carol Sinclair and Karen Mitchell received Workplace - Council Awards for their work in Lane Cove Council’s Community Service and Library teams.
The Workplace – General Award was presented to Karen Paull, Community Chaplain for the Uniting Church, for her tireless work in bringing people together and lending a listening ear when serving others in the community.
Hockey brothers Tom and Ben Craig were both awarded Sports Awards for their success in field hockey at a national level.
The brothers both have their roots in the Lane Cove area and began their respective hockey careers in nearby Ryde.
Ben was named on the Australian hockey team, ‘The Kookaburras’, in November 2016. Ben’s younger brother Tom has also been part of the Ryde Hockey Club and made his international career debut in 2014 representing Australia in the Kookaburras team, heading to the Rio Olympics in 2016 and competing at the recent Commonwealth Games.
The Sustainable Organisation & Outstanding Business of the Year was awarded to About Life. Although this business has just sold, Council acknowledged the hard work About Life put into their store and the wider community during their time here together with their commitment to environmental and social issues.
This included discounts for people who bring their own coffee cup or shopping bag; supporting the ‘Ban the Bag’ campaign and ‘War on Waste’ initiatives; separating waste into six separate streams to ensure more efficient recycling, upcycling and composting; offering an over-the-counter collection point for the Container Deposit Scheme; and various social initiatives including cooking demonstrations, in-store wellness experts, food medicine shop tours, community detox programs and hiring local school students.
Congratulations to all this year’s award winners for their hard work and the contribution they have made to the Lane Cove community.
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