Young people making an outstanding contribution across Greater Geelong have been recognised at the annual Geelong Youth Awards.
The City of Greater Geelong presented awards in 10 categories at Friday night’s ceremony at Geelong West Town Hall, recognising the contributions of young people aged between 12 and 25 years who live, work, learn or play in Greater Geelong.
The awards ranged across the areas of leadership, cultural awareness, community work, sport, arts, music and youth development.
Youth Council members were instrumental in selecting the award categories and played a role in determining the successful nominees in each category.
The 2023 winners, selected from 89 nominations (young people were able to be nominated in up to two categories) across the 10 categories, include:
- Active Achievement – Competitive hearing-impaired swimmer Dylan Logan, has a reputation for encouraging and inspiring other children with disabilities to participate in sports, be involved in their sporting community and strive for excellence.
- Arts and Music – Kai D’Orsa, spent seven months planning sessions to inspire and engage young people in Geelong to be involved in an innovative arts project at the Geelong Gallery.
- Citizenship Group – 1st Belmont Venturer Unit Ukraine Fundraiser – Group members Kaitlyn Biro, Angus Taylor, Liam Biro, Miri Barnes, Alistair Breaky and Will Cole completed odd jobs in the community to raise $3000 to support youth in Ukraine.
- Citzenship Individual – Arhlia Cvetkovski, has developed a community group, that focuses on health and wellbeing through regular exercise.
Drawing on the support of sponsors she has built a group of 50 who meet at Point Lonsdale beach front each Sunday morning to walk or run together.
- Cultural Awareness -Dedicated to ensuring his community felt connected to their new country, through sport and various activities, Moo Thay Wyar Blue, was instrumental in the organisation of the largest sports tournament within the Karen and Karenni communities. Over 1500 people attended from Victoria and New South Wales.
- Inclusion – Sarbjeet Singh has demonstrated commitment and determination in supporting international students to settle in Geelong. This included organising community events, study support groups, social groups, cultural events with traditional gatherings, demonstrating leadership skills, cultural understanding and promoting inclusion.
- Inspiration – Proud aboriginal young person, Jonathon Kelly connected with the broader community by sharing his culture and supporting the Aboriginal community to engage in cultural activities, sporting carnivals and activities. Despite facing many challenges, Jonathon achieved excellent educational outcomes, which led to him being accepted to study Civil Engineering at University.
- Leadership – Breanna Beckley has made a significant impact on gender equality in the community, hosting the first Female Festival of Sport in the Barwon region, supporting young women to participate and be celebrated for their successes in both football and netball.Breanna is the first female to ever be appointed to the position of talent and operations lead at the Geelong Falcons.
- Unsung Hero – Jasmine Van Der Muellen, is currently studying VCE, whilst juggling the role of a young carer for her family, particularly her two younger sisters, who both have ASD. Jasmine supports daily tasks such as dressing, cooking and cleaning and managing some of their symptoms. She uses her personal experience to educate others about ASD.
- Volunteer – Lottie Hughes. Impacted by the number of people struggling to feed their families during covid lockdown, Lottie partnered with the Drysdale Foodbank by riding her bike, with trailer attached, to collect donations for delivery to the Foodbank. Lottie also developed close relationships with elderly residents in the community who lived alone and looked forward to their visit.
Special mentions were made of Odi Evans for his contribution to the environment, Nic Robinson in recognition of his creativity in the world of tech and animation, along with inspiring young entrepreneur, art gallery owner Abby Sleep.
Mayor Trent Sullivan
I congratulate the award recipients; it’s vital for the City to acknowledge the outstanding role that the region’s young people play.
It’s important that we recognise and reward the terrific work that the youth of the Geelong region do in our community.
The awards provide well-deserved acknowledgement to the many young people who have made outstanding contributions across a variety of areas in Greater Geelong.
Deputy Mayor Anthony Aitken
I applaud all 89 nominees and congratulated the award winners across the 10 categories.
As a Council, we’re enormously proud of the inspiring work that our region’s young people do to make our region such a great place to live.
Contributions come in a variety of forms and it’s always exciting when we see young people around us stepping up and making a positive contribution.
I hope that the stories of our category winners provide inspiration for other young people in the Geelong community.
