Civic celebration for awarded youth

A FORMAL civic reception for the young people honoured during November’s City of Ballarat Youth Awards was held at the Town Hall on Monday.

Eleven people under the age of 25 and their families were invited into the Trench Room to receive certificates, meet each other, the mayor and councillors, and enjoy refreshments.

Ballarat Action Climate Co-op’s Hazel Lanyon was named the 2021 positive leader award recipient at the virtual ceremony last month.

She was grateful to be acknowledged, and to experience a special occasion at the Town Hall for the first time.

“I was really honoured, first of all, to be nominated. I wasn’t expecting it, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to win, so it was a lovely surprise,” she said.

“It means a lot to be recognised for the volunteer work that I’ve been doing over the past few years, and to know the Ballarat community values the work of people like me who are fighting for climate action and for climate justice.”

City of Ballarat mayor Cr Daniel Moloney paid tribute to the volunteer organisers of the Youth Awards, the Together Enhancing the Achievements of Many (T.E.A.M) Committee, and the young honourees making the district a better place to live and work.

“The many achievements, stories of compassion, and leadership examples reflect the extraordinary young people we have here in the Ballarat community,” he said.

“More than 100 people aged 12 to 25 living, working in or attending school in Ballarat were nominated across the 11 categories.

“I have massive faith in the future of our city when I look around this room. We have a wealth of talented leaders that will be leading our city in 10 or 20 years’ time, so watch out fellow councillors.”

Bradley Woods, Jerrica John, Will Stephens, Jesse Mackay, Will Tasic, Jake Sbardella, Gabriel Gervasoni, Aviva Channells, Matilda Myers, and Ella Matthews were celebrated, alongside Hazel Lanyon, and two adult allies, Wayne Scanlon and Padma Giri.

Awardees had the opportunity to network with local organisations including the Ballarat Foundation, The Y Ballarat, the Wendouree Centre for Performing Arts, Highlands LLEN, Compassionate Ballarat, the Committee for Ballarat, Ballarat Tech School, Voice FM, Basketball Ballarat, the Centre for Multicultural Youth, the Western Bulldogs, and Community Bank Buninyong.