Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about a special young lady in the electorate of Ryan. Emma MacDonald is a year 5 student at Brookfield State School who dedicates her time each year to collecting donations for the Salvation Army food drive. It was my great pleasure to meet Emma last year when she was nominated by her teachers to receive one of my local Young Community Leader Awards.

This award recognises our talented young leaders of the future who are making an important contribution to our wider community. The award is given to students who have shown an ongoing commitment to positive change and supporting those around us. No time has been more important than during the COVID-19 pandemic when Emma saw the extra stress it was putting on people and families who were finding it hard to make ends meet. She promoted the Salvation Army food drive within the Brookfield State School community and managed to collect an incredible 1,000 items to donate to local families.

The Salvation Army provides an incredible service to people doing it tough throughout the year, including during the Christmas period. Last Christmas the Salvation Army provided around 64,000 hampers as well as 26,000 gifts to individuals and families in need. Earlier this year Emma reached out to me to see if we could brainstorm a way for her to reach her new goal of donating over 2,000 items, so she's planning to double her incredible efforts of the previous year. To reach her target, Emma and her very supportive mum, Nicola, letterbox dropped flyers, put signs up around the community and contacted our local newspaper to advertise her food drive. She's had some fantastic local businesses who've got on board with supporting her and who are providing drop-off locations for her donations.

I would encourage all members of the Ryan community who are interested to get involved and to donate things such as non-perishable food items, toiletries, gift vouchers and cleaning products. Next time you're down at your local Coles or Woolworths picking up your groceries, get a couple of extra things, a few non-perishables, that you can donate. If you need any further information on ideas, please get in touch with my office. Once you've got your donation ready to go, you can drop it off at the Pullenvale IGA, Brookfield State School, Brookfield Produce Store, Moggill Village post office or under the Christmas tree in the reception of my own office in Taringa. Every donation counts, and if we pull together as a community we can help this incredible young lady, Emma, reach her goal of having over 2,000 bits of non-perishable food and other items that we can donate to help make local families' Christmas special when they're doing it tough. I really want to congratulate Emma again on her outstanding efforts on behalf of our community.