Queen of War on Waste in Western Suburbs takes out Volunteer of the Year
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Town of Claremont Mayor Jock Barker said the Town would not be able to run efficiently without the help and support of the volunteering community.
“Last year, our volunteers gave over 6000 hours of their time, including to our library, our museum as well as to Lake Claremont under the Friends of Lake Claremont organisation,” Mayor Jock Barker said. “This equates to more than three full-time jobs.”
“Volunteering doesn’t stop at Town based initiatives; hundreds of people generously donate their time to their local sporting groups, local churches, school communities and to other groups for the betterment of our entire community.”
“This year’s Volunteer of the Year Award has gone to a very worthy recipient, it is a wonderful way to inaugurate our Volunteer Awards.”
Claremont’s Susan Pestana was awarded Volunteer of the Year for her dedication to recycling, reusing and redistributing goods destined for landfill. Ms Pestana has saved more than 20,000 kilograms of goods from ending up in landfill.
“Susan has been named the Queen of war on waste in the western suburbs,” Mayor Barker said. “She hosts talks at local schools about the importance of recycling and has helped larger private schools redistribute old style uniforms sensitively and sustainably.”
“When she isn’t saving items from landfill, she volunteers countless hours for the Western Metropolitan Region Council (WMRC) Waste Education unit’s events and their Earth Carer’s program as well as being a tour guide for historical walking tours around our Town Centre,” Mayor Barker told guests at the celebration.
“I look forward to seeing these awards grow in the future, and continuing to be able to recognise the effort and contribution our volunteers provide for our community,” Mayor Barker said.
The other award categories and the winners were as follows: Youth Volunteer of the Year, presented to Friends of Lake Claremont’s Zac Hardisty for his service to the organisation over the past ten years and recently as a valued member of the Friends of Lake Claremont Board of Directors.
Senior Volunteer of the Year, awarded to Ann Ridley for over 40 years of service to the Claremont Nedlands Cricket Club as scorer for the ‘A’ grade and colts games as well as secretary for the club.
Volunteer Team of the Year, awarded to The Friends of Lake Claremont for working tirelessly on nature conservation at Lake Claremont. The Friends have raised over $500,000 in grants and planted more than 350,000 seedlings to help restore the wetlands since its inception 25 years ago. Back To News Stories