On 1 July 1851, Victoria was declared a separate colony to New South Wales. To celebrate the anniversary of Victoria Day, I, along with Kim Wells, State Member for Rowville, held an annual awards night to recognise volunteers in our local community who have made a significant contribution in Knox.
The awards ceremony was attended by 200 local community members representing the great number of sporting, cultural, educational, health, environmental, emergency, charitable, elderly and veterans volunteer groups and organisations within our community.
Thank you to all those who helped make the evening such a success, especially the Polish Senior Citizens Club who hosted the event, and the event sponsors Ferntree Gully and Rowville Community Bank Branches (Bendigo Bank) and Good Life Party Food Shop.
Congratulations to this year’s Victoria Day Award winners.
Nick Wakeling
Member of Parliament for Ferntree Gully
Gully News and MDLC Recognised at Victoria Day Awards
Congratulations to Gully News volunteer John Ford on receiving an award
for many years of volunteering, pictured here with wife Jenny Ford.
Ferntree Gully News nominated John for his continuing service as invoicer,
financial advisor, and for keeping the rest of us on track as an efficient volunteer-run business. Jenny was until recently our distribution manager and together they
continue to deliver the paper in several zones.
Thank you John and Jenny.
Two leaders at Mountain District Learning Centre were also honoured with Victoria Day Awards for outstanding volunteer service.
Chris Markwick was nominated by the Centre for his outstanding service on the Board of Management since 2009 including chairman since 2011.
Chris has maintained stable and effective leadership for the Centre. He has encouraged the growth of Ferntree Gully News (of which the Centre is the auspicing body) and is MC at their volunteers’ annual party. He is also chair of the Knox-Vincentian scholarship committee, a St Vincent de Paul group at St John the Baptist parish in the Gully, a group which provides funded scholarships for needy students at schools in Knox.
Centre Manager Janet Claringbold was nominated by the Studfield-Wantirna Community Newspaper, of which she is founding editor.
Janet is resident in Wantirna and works on the paper as a volunteer (in addition to a very full-time job at the Learning Centre). The Studfield-Wantirna paper has the biggest circulation of the four community papers in Knox.
Janet also formats her paper, a work of meticulous skill. Last year the won the Community Newspapers Association of Victoria’s award for best design and layout.
Congratulations to Chris and Janet.
