{"id":99662,"date":"2024-02-02T04:58:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T17:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=99662"},"modified":"2024-01-30T10:52:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T23:52:02","slug":"everyday-community-achievers-recognised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday community achievers recognised"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>THE man behind many of the City of Ballarat\u2019s flower displays was awarded the title of Citizen of the Year at a ceremony held at Town Hall last week.<\/p>\n<p>Horticulturalist Kevin Moneghetti is responsible for growing and maintain the plants which are used in the municipality\u2019s Christmas decorations as well suppling begonias for the Begonia Festival.<\/p>\n<p>He is also part of many local gardening groups and grows and transports flowers for the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Moneghetti said he was not expecting to receive that accolade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI could have picked a dozen around the town that I felt deserved it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Horticulture has been a lifelong passion for Mr Moneghetti and a career he said is very rewarding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll my life I\u2019ve been interested in horticulture, from when I was young and ran a wholesale nursery, which I still run today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes you feel like you achieved something seeing people look at your work, if they get the happiness out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Young Citizen of the Year was awarded to Jacob Osenaris, a youth ambassador for Ballarat who has organised projects with the aim raising awareness about youth mental health, domestic violence, and bullying.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_99664\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-99664\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-99664\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/01\/Jacob-web-600x380.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"380\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-99664\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jacob Osenaris of the City of Ballarat for his work creating awareness around issues such as youth mental health, bullying and domestic violence. Photo: MIRIAM LITWIN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He is a member of the Y Ballarat and is part of the YMCA&#8217;s Youth Parliament program where he won a Parliament Prize for his skills writing and debating legislative bills.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Osenaris now has ambitions to become a politician.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is so much more work so be done and so much more to be achieved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that this award isn\u2019t an end point, it\u2019s more to show the start and what young people are capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2023 Mega Ganesh Festival was announced as the Community Event of the Year.<\/p>\n<p>The free festival, which is a first for regional Victoria, attracted more than 7000 people with interactive sessions held to develop cultural understanding as school sports competitions to create conversation about diverse cultures.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_99665\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-99665\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-99665\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/01\/Mega-Ganesh-Festival-web-600x380.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"380\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-99665\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Raveen Chilukuri, Gobi Anand and Nithiya Krishnan represented the Ballarat Hindu and Cultural Centre which received the award for community event of the year for the Mega Ganesh Festival 2023. Photo: MIRIAM LITWIN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThis was the first event of it\u2019s kind in Victoria all together,\u201d said treasurer of the Ballarat Hindu and Cultural Centre, Raveen Chilukuri.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe, a team of seven or eight people, worked so hard with a lot of volunteers around Ballarat and we were able to attract more than 6000 to 7000 people for a three-day event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to continue this as a legacy every year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE man behind many of the City of Ballarat\u2019s flower displays was awarded the title of Citizen of the Year at a ceremony held at Town Hall last week. Horticulturalist Kevin Moneghetti is responsible for growing and maintain the plants which are used in the municipality\u2019s Christmas decorations as well suppling begonias for the Begonia [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":99663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-99662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Everyday community achievers recognised - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Everyday community achievers recognised - Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE man behind many of the City of Ballarat\u2019s flower displays was awarded the title of Citizen of the Year at a ceremony held at Town Hall last week. Horticulturalist Kevin Moneghetti is responsible for growing and maintain the plants which are used in the municipality\u2019s Christmas decorations as well suppling begonias for the Begonia [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ballarat Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-01T17:58:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/01\/Kevin-web.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"563\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Miriam Litwin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Miriam Litwin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Miriam Litwin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5d26a285fac71a1bba0f33ca120717d1\"},\"headline\":\"Everyday community achievers recognised\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-01T17:58:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":474,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Kevin-web.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/\",\"name\":\"Everyday community achievers recognised - Ballarat Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Kevin-web.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-01T17:58:35+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Kevin-web.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Kevin-web.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":563,\"caption\":\"Green thumb: Horticulturist and nurseryman Kevin Moneghetti was awarded citizen of the year for his contributions to the City of Ballarat\u2019s Christmas decorations, the Begonia Festival and various local gardening groups. Photo: MIRIAM LITWIN\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/news\\\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Everyday community achievers recognised\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ballarat Times\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Ballarat Times\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2021\\\/10\\\/BALT.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/prod\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/9\\\/2021\\\/10\\\/BALT.png\",\"width\":739,\"height\":98,\"caption\":\"Ballarat Times\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5d26a285fac71a1bba0f33ca120717d1\",\"name\":\"Miriam Litwin\",\"description\":\"Miriam Litwin is a journalist and digital content lead with the Ballarat Times, Golden Plains Times and Moorabool News, covering local politics and community news.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\\\/ballarat\\\/author\\\/miriam\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Everyday community achievers recognised - Ballarat Times","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Everyday community achievers recognised - Ballarat Times","og_description":"THE man behind many of the City of Ballarat\u2019s flower displays was awarded the title of Citizen of the Year at a ceremony held at Town Hall last week. Horticulturalist Kevin Moneghetti is responsible for growing and maintain the plants which are used in the municipality\u2019s Christmas decorations as well suppling begonias for the Begonia [...]Read More...","og_url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/","og_site_name":"Ballarat Times","article_published_time":"2024-02-01T17:58:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":563,"url":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/01\/Kevin-web.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Miriam Litwin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Miriam Litwin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/"},"author":{"name":"Miriam Litwin","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#\/schema\/person\/5d26a285fac71a1bba0f33ca120717d1"},"headline":"Everyday community achievers recognised","datePublished":"2024-02-01T17:58:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/"},"wordCount":474,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/01\/Kevin-web.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/","name":"Everyday community achievers recognised - Ballarat Times","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/01\/Kevin-web.jpg","datePublished":"2024-02-01T17:58:35+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/01\/Kevin-web.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2024\/01\/Kevin-web.jpg","width":1000,"height":563,"caption":"Green thumb: Horticulturist and nurseryman Kevin Moneghetti was awarded citizen of the year for his contributions to the City of Ballarat\u2019s Christmas decorations, the Begonia Festival and various local gardening groups. Photo: MIRIAM LITWIN"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/everyday-community-achievers-recognised\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Everyday community achievers recognised"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/","name":"Ballarat Times","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#organization","name":"Ballarat Times","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2021\/10\/BALT.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2021\/10\/BALT.png","width":739,"height":98,"caption":"Ballarat Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/#\/schema\/person\/5d26a285fac71a1bba0f33ca120717d1","name":"Miriam Litwin","description":"Miriam Litwin is a journalist and digital content lead with the Ballarat Times, Golden Plains Times and Moorabool News, covering local politics and community news.","url":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/author\/miriam\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99662"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=99662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}