Last chance to nominate a great young Aussie

Locals wanting to celebrate the great community work or achievements of a young East Gippslander have an extra few days to submit their nominations.

East Gippsland Shire Council is putting out a final call for nominations in the Young Citizen of the Year (people under 27 years on 26 January 2019) category until 5pm on Wednesday, December 5.

Strong nominations will highlight how nominees have:

Lakes Entrance’s Aislin Jones, who shared the honour of being the 2018 Young Citizen of the Year with Bairnsdale Show president Jack Peterson, said her year to date representing East Gippsland in Australia and abroad had been “huge”.

“2018 has been a huge year for me and started off with a bang after being named joint East Gippsland Young Citizen of the Year,” Olympic skeet shooter Aislin said.

“I think the biggest highlight for me this year was competing at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April and finishing sixth in front of a home crowd. I also finished in the top 10 at the Junior World Championships in Korea and gold medalled at the Junior World Cup in Sydney. 

“I was fortunate enough during the year to compete in open international events in Mexico and Italy and another Junior World Cup in Germany.”

Aislin, encouraging locals to nominate for the shire-wide awards program, said being the Young Citizen of the Year had exposed her to a new cohort of people, aiding her personal development.

“Through a couple of the functions I have attended I’ve been fortunate to meet a number of people who may be useful going forward now that I am finished school as contacts for employment or other sponsorship. I have also had the opportunity to deliver the dawn address at the Anzac Day service in Bairnsdale for the RSL,” Aislin said.

“I think East Gippsland is an amazing place to live in and we have so many people doing incredible things. I would strongly encourage people to nominate others in the community who deserve some recognition for what they are doing and achieving.

“Most people succeed quietly and sometimes all it takes is for someone else to nominate an individual or event for the whole region to become aware of what they are doing.”

Jack Peterson, who shared the 2018 award with Aislin, is one of those people.

Jack and his team of volunteers took the Bairnsdale Show from a waning local event to a raging regional success in 2017. The 2018 show held earlier this month built on the successes of 2017 and cemented it as a must-attend annual event.

In line with his community-minded approach, Jack said a feature of the show has been the number of community-based events and family attendance.

“We’ve changed basically what a lot of shows have been trying to do by charging people more and having more entertainment and we’re trying to incorporate more family-based free activities,” he said.

Jack said planning was already underway for the 2019 version, saying the show committee was already gathering feedback and looking to put in place a bigger and better show next year.

The East Gippsland Australia Day Award nomination form is available on council’s website; hard copies are available at council’s Customer Service Centres and Outreach Centres, or call (03) 5153 9500.

Winners of its shire-wide Australia Day awards at a civic ceremony held during the week of Australia Day (January 2019).

Nominations closed for the Citizen and Community Event of the year categories on November 23.