{"id":99589,"date":"2025-02-16T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/?p=99589"},"modified":"2025-02-13T13:51:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T02:51:02","slug":"mckeegan-endorses-grant-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/news\/mckeegan-endorses-grant-program\/","title":{"rendered":"McKeegan endorses grant program"},"content":{"rendered":"

WESTFIELD Local Heroes winner Damian McKeegan is encouraging people to nominate a champion of their community to receive this year’s $20,000 grant.<\/p>\n

McKeegan was crowned the 2024 Westfield Local Heroes winner and was awarded $20,000 for his welfare work at the St Marys Football Netball Club.<\/p>\n

Following the suicide of a young player, he initiated support programs at St Marys which address health, drugs\u00a0and bullying.<\/p>\n

“I am very thankful to Westfield for putting this award up,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure people who receive the funding [this year] will use it to help benefit the community.”<\/p>\n

Mr McKeegan said his $20,000 grant will be used to further enhance the club’s welfare services throughout the 2025 football season.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Damian McKeegan will put his $20,000 to use during the 2025 season.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

“It [the funding] will go a long way toward running some programs representing mental health, drugs and alcohol. These will be run with the senior men and women teams and through to the juniors as well.<\/p>\n

“We also plan on having some guest presenters and speakers come along to the club to pass on the messages to our people.”<\/p>\n

Nominations for Westfield Local Heroes close on March 13.<\/p>\n

The program annually recognises and celebrates individuals and orgsanisations dedicated to their communities.<\/p>\n

For more information and to nominate someone, head to westfield.com.au\/local-heroes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WESTFIELD Local Heroes winner Damian McKeegan is encouraging people to nominate a champion of their community to receive this year’s $20,000 grant. McKeegan was crowned the 2024 Westfield Local Heroes winner and was awarded $20,000 for his welfare work at the St Marys Football Netball Club. Following the suicide of a young player, he initiated […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":99590,"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-99589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMcKeegan endorses grant program - Bellarine Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"2024 Westfield Local Hero Damian McKeegan encourages nominations for the $20,000 Westfield Local Heroes Grant. 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