COVID info provider gets city’s top honour

DANIEL Cook was named Citizen of the Year for 2022 at the Ballarat Community Awards on Tuesday.

Mr Cook is the manager of the Ballarat COVID Info Facebook page, which currently has almost 15,000 members and shares accurate, timely information with the community to keep residents COVID-safe and aware of regulations.

A teacher at Damascus College, the page is his “second full-time job.” He liaises with Ballarat Health Services media team, the Grampians Public Health Unit, vaccination hub and testing site staff, and regional and metropolitan contact tracers, and watches government press conferences to provide simple summaries.

“It is with pleasure but extreme humbleness that I receive this prestigious award. Being named Ballarat Citizen of the Year is an amazing achievement, but this isn’t just my achievement,” he said.

“I’m very proud of this community and what it’s achieved in such a short amount of time, especially in terms of vaccinations, and how in peaks of our various outbreaks, information has been provided freely to the COVID group from all variety of businesses and individuals.

“It’s not hiding behind a pay wall or tainted with bias, just factual, accurate and timely information, be it an exposure site or notification of a business closure. Very rarely does the page ever run into issues with the information being shared.”

The page sees approximately 280,000 posts, links, clicks and page views a day from across Victoria. It is the largest public COVID-19 information Facebook group in the state, and only run by the one person.

Mr Cook’s “deep desire to help people” comes from his late mother who said, “if you can help one person each day for the better, no matter how big or small that gesture be, you will change the world in a way you will never know.”

“That is the motto I live by,” he said.

“I accept this award on behalf of the entire Ballarat community. It belongs to each and every person who has inboxed, sent an SMS, emailed, called with information, or posted on the page.

“Without their input, information, tips and advice on the page, it could not provide the amazing information it does, and will continue to do.”

Wendouree CFA volunteer and 1st lieutenant Bradley Woods was awarded the Young Citizen of the Year honour, however he was absent from the ceremony.

The Ballarat Keralites’ Foundation of Australia’s Freshly Cooked Free Food in Lockdown initiative was awarded Community Event of the Year, having provided 2454 Indian meals during peak periods of the pandemic, responding to the community’s need for assistance.