Mary Doyle (Aston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Recently I had the tremendous honour of hosting the inaugural Tilly Aston Community Awards. Pioneered in recognition of Tilly Aston, one of Australia's most influential disability advocates, the awards champion those in my community who embody and foster Tilly Aston's spirit, empathy, courage and persistence and those who inspire and lead every day. I was thrilled that the awards provided me with an opportunity to learn about and chat with people from these fantastic organisations and individuals within my community. In recognition of their contributions, I would love to share a little about some of the recipients of these awards.

Life in an aged-care facility or retirement village can sometimes become quite isolating and lonely, and this is a problem which is being solved by the fantastic volunteers at the Inner Wheel Club of Boronia. The team serves residents by brightening their days with regular morning tea catch-ups and special birthday and family celebrations. That's why I was proud to present them with the Local Hospitality Champion Award. They were very happy about that too.

I knew it was crucial to recognise work being done within the mental health sphere, so the honour of receiving the Mental Health and Wellbeing Champion Award went to an organisation called Ben's Place. This is a wonderful family run organisation tragically born out of the founder's son's death by suicide. Ben's Place is now thriving in their ability to provide pantry services to the community, helping over 500 families in the community weekly.

Another terrific group which was recognised was Volunteer for Knox, who won the Connecting Communities Champion Award. Run by two very dedicated volunteers, Volunteer for Knox recruits volunteers from across our community and directs them to suitable organisations in Knox, which is brilliant work.

The last in our group awards was the Sporting Champion Award, which I proudly presented to the Ferntree Gully Tennis Club for their All Abilities Tennis Program. This program promotes inclusion and participation in tennis for those in our community who live with physical and intellectual disabilities. It has been such a huge success in terms of take-up. People love it and rave about it.

I also presented numerous individual awards on the night. One of them was our Leadership Award, which went to the most celebrated, wonderful Lillie Giang for her work in building the charity organisation Feed One Feed All. Feed One Feed All, or FOFA, as it has become known, is a group of committed, passionate locals doing all they can to ensure nobody goes hungry. Lillie founded FOFA following the destructive storms of 2021 that so affected the hills community. It's now a thriving charity that feeds and assists many families throughout Knox. My staff and I have had the pleasure of visiting FOFA, and I must say that the food they have on offer to the community is not only delicious but nutritious and comforting too.

Our next award was the Innovation Award, which was presented to Ross Black. Ross is the CEO of the Knox Gymnastics Club, where he played a monumental role in the movement of training to the new innovative facilities at the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna South. Ross has spent countless hours in network meetings, liaising, fine-tuning and advocating for all stakeholders to deliver the facilities at Knox Gymnastics Club. I want to say congratulations and well done to Ross.

Our Rising Star Award was presented to Neethu Kushalappa for her fantastic work as a CPR first aid trainer and assessor. Neethu has spent years supporting people across Melbourne in the aged-care and disability sectors and is a regular volunteer as well.

Sarah Anderson was the recipient of the Outstanding Young Achiever Award. As a 10-year-old and a First Nations person, Sarah proudly became a student leader at her school and assisted in the process of writing her school's acknowledgement of country, teaching the other students the process. I want to congratulate Sarah as well.

One of the loudest cheers of the night was for Gayle Dyer, the winner of our Local Hero Award. Gayle founded the organisation Share Space, a food and essentials relief charity that assists over 600 people monthly in Knox. The Volunteer of the Year Award went to Christopher Guinane for his work volunteering as president of the Knox Toy Library. The toy library ensures that all children have toys to take home each night, and is well loved in Aston.

It was an honour meeting and presenting Kym Doove with our Carer of the Year Award. (Time expired)

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