Over the winter break in my electorate of Deakin we celebrated the 2023 Deakin Community Awards. The award night recognises some of the local community’s most dedicated, hard-working and respected individuals. These unsung local heroes, who selflessly give of themselves to make our community a better place, were able to be recognised on the night, and it’s clear that our community would not be where it is today were it not for the type of people that we recognise in the Deakin Community Awards. With the exception of a brief interlude during the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve run the Deakin Community Awards since 2014, with the occasion growing in its audience and number of nominations from across the Deakin electorate. Each year we get an incredibly diverse range of nominations across all ages and backgrounds, with winners coming from community organisations that span local sporting clubs, churches, schools, service organisations and charities. All of these nominations are broken down by individuals in the youth, open and seniors categories as well as a separate group category.

The awards night is a real community effort, with a local school usually hosting the event. This year it was at the George Wood Performing Arts Centre at Yarra Valley Grammar. The Australian Children’s Choir, which is based locally, in Mitcham, opened the night wonderfully with the Australian national anthem and the song ‘Throw Open Your Shutters!’. We ended the night on an equal high with the East City Sound Chorus, who closed the night with ‘This Is the Moment’ and a very touching rendition of ‘I Am Australian’. On the night, we were able to recognise the efforts and achievements of 67 individuals and 18 local groups in front of a crowd of more than 600 people.

Not only do the Deakin Community Awards serve as an opportunity to recognise the efforts of our local heroes and those who do so without wanting any recognition; it also serves to inform the many locals of the range of activities that take place right in our community and that in many cases they may not have heard of personally. Every year attendees come to me afterwards amazed at the support offered by local groups like the Croydon-Mooroolbark Lions Club, who fundraised $50,000 to provide financial support for other community events, or Biala Ringwood, whose tireless team of volunteers provides support and respite for families with young special needs children. Our locals are amazed to learn that someone they know quietly volunteers their time to ensure the running of the local sporting club—like Craig Douglas, who has served the Heathmont Cricket Club and Heathmont football club for over 40 years, or a young person like Sienna Grylls, who, despite still being in school, dedicates herself to coaching students as young as three Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at XFC Bayswater. These are just a couple of examples of the many people who make Deakin such an incredible place to live and who are recognised at the awards.

It would be remiss of me not to specifically mention the winners on the night. In the youth category, we celebrated joint winners Brodie Smith and Abbey Whitaker, who each volunteer as junior coaches for Ringwood Little Athletics. Both Brodie and Abbey are incredibly motivated coaches, with Brodie being recognised in particular for his ability to communicate with young athletes—they have tremendous respect for his advice—and Abbey already capably developing programs tailored to individual athletes.

In the open category, Jen Eslick was recognised for her tireless service to St James Netball Club. Jen has served on the club committee for years while also coaching two teams and managing the development of other coaches and umpires.

The Maroondah unit of the Victorian SES was recognised as our group winner for their unwavering assistance to the Maroondah community during times of crisis.

Finally, our seniors winner and overall winner on the night was Andrew Brownlee. Andrew has served the Rotary Club of Maroondah for over two decades, holding the key roles of president, secretary and chair of the international committee, and in the last 12 months alone he spearheaded a campaign to deliver 100,000 emergency meals to Sri Lankan children impacted by the economic crisis in that country.

The efforts of all the nominees never cease to impress. I’m so proud of our community and everybody recognised on the evening.

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