Our community is home to so many generous individuals who go above and beyond to help their neighbours and make our community a better place to live. We should celebrate the contributions of our volunteers more, and that’s what my annual Burt Volunteer Awards are all about.
Volunteers don’t do what they do for accolades or acknowledgment, rather they do it for the love of it. The volunteers acknowledged through my annual Burt Volunteer Awards are just the tip of an iceberg of volunteer support for so many organisations and by celebrating their efforts I hope to encourage more people to put their hand up to help out their local clubs or organisations.
I was so impressed with the diversity of applications for this year’s awards. The Burt Volunteer Awards are a fabulous opportunity to thank volunteers who work so hard in our community and encourage others to get involved.
Burt Volunteer awards – Winners
2021 Burt Volunteer Sport Award
The Winner of the 2021 Burt Volunteer Sport Award is Dawn Pereira from Gosnells City Football Club. Dawn was nominated for her tireless work at the Club and is often there for the whole weekend, most weekends as well as organising all sorts of functions and fundraisers for the club.
2021 Burt Volunteer Community Service Award
The Winner of the 2021 Burt Volunteer Community Service Award is Neville Raxworthy of the Gosnells District Neighbourhood Watch. It would take all day to outline all of Neville’s achievements for our community but in short, Neville led the Gosnells Community Youth Service scheme in the 1980’s, he’s also been a Justice of the Peace since the 1980s, he has coordinated and chaired the Gosnells District Neighbourhood watch and been a dedicated member for more than 15 years, he’s also been the Gosnells Croquet Club President for 9 terms and has contributed to a number of school education and safety programs around our community.
2021 Burt Volunteer Disability Support Award
The Winner of the 2021 Burt Volunteer Disability Support Award is Rob Turner of the Kelmscott Bulldogs Football Club. Rob started the first inclusive sporting team in our community and this year the Inaugural Integrated all abilities ALP Footy team has provided many local people living with disability not only the opportunity to play footy, but also get involved in the club in non-playing roles. Rob is the coach of the team but does so much more, supporting the team in our community and connecting them with local support services and NDIS providers. As if that doesn’t keep him busy enough, Rob also founded and manages Kelmscott’s first Women’s team and manages the two senior men’s teams at Kelmscott.
2021 Burt Volunteer Youth Award
Three joint winners for the 2021 Burt Volunteer Youth Award - siblings: Ashton, Destiny and Jasmine Perkins.
Ashton was nominated for his work with “Rebound WA” disability services while balancing his year 12 studies, meanwhile Destiny was nominated for her work with the Variety Youth Choir in WA and with local holiday camps all the while studying Speech Pathology full time and Jasmine for her work with Whizz Kid Programs as well as various holiday camps and the “Healthy Strides” foundation while studying Occupational Therapy full time at uni. What a generous family.
2021 Burt Volunteer Environment Award
The winner of the 2021 Burt Volunteer Environment Award is Unice Robinson of the Friends of Mary Carroll Wetland. Unice has tirelessly worked for years to activate the community, organising teams of volunteers to weed, plant and pick up rubbish – not to mention hosting lots of educational events (including for State and Federal MPs from around Australia).
