On fire: education program wins another award

THE Anglesea Fire Education Program has picked up another gong, winning the WorkSafe Victoria Regional Safety Award at this year’s Victorian Regional Achievement and Community Awards.

The program won the award from a strong field of nominees and was one of 10 category winners announced on October 13 at Flemington’s The Event Centre.

Part of the CFA’s Survive and Thrive program, the Anglesea Fire Education Program is led by a community partnership consisting of representatives from the local CFA fire brigade, the primary school, local fire experts and others.

The program empowers and encourages students to take on the role of educators and lead bushfire education and preparedness activities in their school and community.

Over the program’s lifetime, pupils have created at least eight unique bushfire education workshops, interviewed bushfire survivors, staged the After the Ashes exhibition, created a book and developed The Fire Game in conjunction with Surf Coast Shire.

Its other awards include the National School Award at the Attorney General’s 2016 Resilient Australia Awards and the Education Award in the 2015 Fire Awareness Awards.

The Victorian Regional Achievement and Community Awards were hosted by PRIME7 news presenter Karl Lijnders and attended by more than 400 guests from across the state, including Victorian Minister for Regional Development Jaala Pulford.

The Queenscliffe Visitor Information Centre was also a winner on the night, taking home the Ricoh Australia Customer Service Award.

Winners each received either $2,000 into an account in their name from Bank of Melbourne or an airtime packages on PRIME7.