Benjamin Harris at St Josephs College, Ferntree Gully receives award from Hon. Alan Tudge MP.

Message from The Hon Alan Tudge, Federal Member for Aston

At the end of each year, I have the pleasure of recognising some of our great young citizens in the Ferntree Gully area through the presentation of the Aston Shield.

In each school, the shield is awarded to a student for good citizenship; someone who has demonstrated compassion, a commitment to others, and who has been a great role model for their school and community.

The Aston Shield is awarded in the spirit of Tilly Aston, who was a remarkable woman in Australian history who did so much for the welfare of blind people. The Federal Electorate of Aston (which covers most of Knox) is named after her.

Tilly was born in 1873 and was completely blind by the age of seven. Yet, despite her obvious challenges, Tilly’s courage and tenacity brought great advancement for blind and vision impaired people. She secured voting rights, better access to public transport, and established the first braille library. (Tilly herself had to drop out of university because there were no braille books.)

Finally, she set up Vision Australia – an organisation that still exists today and helps tens of thousands of people each year.

I am very proud of our young winners. If Tilly were alive today, I am sure that she would also be very proud.

The winners who received the Aston Shield, in the Ferntree Gully area in 2019, were:

• Joshua Abbott from Fairhills Primary School
• Brianna McLennan from Wattleview Primary School
• Mahta Moradiamani from Mountain Gate Primary School
• Chanbormey Hor from Fairhills High School
• Tyler Francis from Ferntree Gully North Primary School
• Yael Elbar Upper Ferntree Gully Primary School
• Benjamin Harris from St Joseph’s College
• Aaron Sujeev from St John the Baptist Primary School.

Congratulations to our outstanding young citizens.

Alan Tudge MP