The Ku-ring-gai Australia Day Awards are presented each year in recognition of groups and individuals who have made a significant contribution to the local community.
Five awards – the Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Service by a Community Group; the Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Service by an Individual; the Young Environmental Citizen of the Year, the Environmental Citizen of the Year and the Citizen of the Year – were presented by Mayor Pettett.
The Group Award went to Easy Care Gardening, whose team of volunteer gardeners work across Ku-ring-gai helping housebound, elderly and vulnerable residents maintain their gardens.
The Mayor’s individual award for outstanding service was presented to Yoel Hyman for his many forms of volunteering in the Ku-ring-gai community. These include firefighting with the Killara RFS, representing the community on the St Ives Traffic Forum and St Ives High P&C and acting as a volunteer administrator for the St Ives community Facebook page.
Ku-ring-gai’s Young Environmental Citizen of the Year is 11 year old Oliver Conolly, a keen budding ornithologist with a passion for protecting vulnerable bird species. Oliver has used his artistic talents to create cards to raise awareness of Ku-ring-gai’s endangered bird populations.
The Environmental Citizen of the Year Award went to Jen Stokes, who set up the local initiative Boomerang Bags. The Boomerang Bags idea aims to reduce the amount of plastic bags circulating in Ku-ring-gai by creating centralised containers of shopping bags that residents can use and then return for others to use.
The 2022 Ku-ring-gai Citizen of the Year is Helen Jarvis. Helen has volunteered with the KYDS youth service over several years to ensure that children and young people in the local community have access to free counselling support. Helen’s efforts have been particularly needed due to a significant increase in stress levels that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused.
Mayor Jeff Pettett said that all those receiving this year’s awards had demonstrated a spirit of selflessness and a willingness to push through the difficulties posed by COVID-19.
“I congratulate the winners and all the many hundreds of other volunteers who have worked round the clock to help local people.
“Australia Day is the perfect day to recognise their contribution.”