Nominations for this year’s Tweed Shire Australia Day Awards are now open – with the 2023 awards to honour a ‘Senior Ambassador’ for the very first time.
Each year for Australia Day, the Council acknowledges the outstanding achievements of individuals, groups and organisations across a number of award categories.
The awards provide an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate those who put back in to make a difference and those who make the Tweed a great place to live and visit.
Mayor of Tweed Shire, Chris Cherry said one of the best ways to recognise those people doing great things in and for our community was through the Tweed Shire Australia Day Awards.
“There are so many people – both individuals and groups – doing so much to contribute to our community and helping to make the Tweed such a great place to live,” Cr Cherry said.
“The awards are an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding achievements of these individuals and groups, the impacts they have and the difference they can make in the community. This is an opportunity to nominate them for significant community recognition!”
Council will hold the next Tweed Shire Australia Day Awards and Citizenship Ceremony on Thursday 25 January 2024, rather than on Australia Day, 26 January.
This is in response to the Australian Government giving local councils a range of dates on which they can choose to hold their ceremonies, Council said in a statement.
You can nominate in the following categories:
- Arts and Culture Award
- Citizen of the Year
- Community Event of the Year
- Senior Ambassador
- Sporting Achievement of the Year (individual and group)
- Volunteer of the Year (individual and group)
- Young Achiever in Community Service.
2022 Tweed Shire Citizen of the Year, refugee advocate Joan Henderson, received the award in January 2023.
Joan says she was thankful her nomination gave her the opportunity to highlight her work and raise awareness to the situation of others.
“It was such an honour to be named Citizen of the Year – it provided wonderful opportunities to increase public awareness about the issues facing refugees,” Ms Henderson said.
“It also resulted in incredible acts of kindness and generosity from our community.”
This is the first year the new category – Senior Ambassador – has been included in the awards.
The category was included following a Notice of Motion put forward by Councillor Nola Firth at the June Council meeting as a means to help counter growing concerns of ageism in the community.
“This is considered particularly important in the Tweed where we have a high proportion of older people,” the Council said in a statement.
“Under the Senior Ambassador category, the nominee must be at least 65 years old and have made a significant contribution to the Tweed community through voluntary or other contributions.
“The nominee must display strong communications skills and leadership to become the Tweed Shire Senior Ambassador for the 12 months following receipt of the award and be willing to take on voluntary promotion of awareness of the positive contribution seniors make to the community during this period.”
Submit your nomination via the online form available at Australia Day nominations. Nominations close at 4.30 pm on Friday 29 September 2023.
