Sapper to lead Meredith commemoration

LIEUTENANT Justin Taskin is the third generation of his family to grow up in Meredith.

He now serves an engineering officer in the army in Albury-Wodonga but will return home to be the guest speaker at the town’s Anzac Day Service.

“My mum has lived in Meredith her whole life, I went to Meredith Primary School and then took the bus each day to High School in Geelong,” Lieutenant Taskin said.

“Next week it is about giving back to the town, at the ceremony I attend as a child year in year out.

“It is likely I’ll get posted interstate next year, so this is really the last chance I can attend the Meredith ceremony easily.”

Mr Taskin joined the Army as an officer midway through an engineering degree at Deakin University in Waurn Ponds.

The army sponsored his last two years of university and after graduation he was posted as a Lieutenant into a leadership role in Albury-Wodonga.

“I have a team of 50-60 tradesmen that I manage which at the age of 23 is quite surreal,” he said.

The essence of the first part of Lieutenant Taskin’s Anzac Day speech is about his belief that achieving special goals in life, regardless of where you come from, is possible through hard work.

“I’m very passionate about this,” he said. “As Meredith is quite small some kids may feel disadvantaged as they approach graduating VCE.

“My career is proof there is no barrier, I even went to a public school.”

Lieutenant Taskin said the rest of his speech will be about the importance of Anzac Day.

Kevin Harty, Secretary of the Meredith RSL said the event is well supported each year with over 100 people attending.

“We fill the hall,” he said.

Vietnam veterans, school children, RSL members and the Meredith community will assemble at the front of the Meredith & District Memorial Hall for the Anzac Day march before the service.

“The march finishes at the cenotaph at the front of the building, where a catafalque party of soldiers from 8/7 RVR Geelong will be in position,” Mr Harty said.

Meredith community groups and residents who wish to remember family members will be invited to place their wreaths at the base of the cenotaph after the service.