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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-08-07 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Unsung Heroes Awards

Mr WINGARD (Mitchell) (15:11): It is with great pleasure that I rise today to talk about some unsung heroes in and around my electorate, who are recognised by the City of Marion and I commend them for doing so. It was with great pleasure that I went to the Unsung Hero Awards night for 2014 and met some outstanding people who are working very hard in the community. The first person I would like to talk about is Adam Harris, the President of the Austral Phoenix Volleyball Club.

Adam has been involved in the club for all of his life, with his father a founding member back in 1973. As well as being president, Adam runs Active After School programs for primary school children, helps with the club's junior development and is also head senior women's coach and he plays in the men's team as well—a great contributor to our community.

There were also awards for arts and culture for volunteers of Dancing with Friends classes at Cooinda Neighbourhood Centre. A couple of people involved here, and there were a few but I would like to mention Joy Smart and John Yard. Joy met John Yard at Wanstall Studio and taught him to dance and they have been dancing partners for 20 years. Together they taught old-time, modern sequence and new vogue dance at Cooinda. Over the years, John and Joy's commitment and passion for dancing has inspired others and kept old style dance alive. Joy only retired a few weeks ago from dance instruction at the ripe old age of 91. Fantastic stuff from, again, some more great people in our community.

Another award went to David Roberts, director of youth projects at Hallett Cove Rotary Club. David is a stalwart of the Rotary Club. He has been a Rotary member for many years and recently led the club's successful youth development projects. This has seen many important links forged with the local Hallett Cove R-12 School and created opportunities for young people. David volunteers in the cancer wards at Flinders Hospital, in the information centre at the Heysen trail and for Kidney Health Australia, a marvellous charity that I know firsthand is doing wonderful things for young people suffering from kidney disease in South Australia.

Another person I would like to mention who has done some marvellous work for the environment is Malcolm McDonnell, Chairperson of the Trott Park Community Garden. Malcolm is a vital member of the Trott Park Community Garden group that has worked tirelessly to become the first community garden to lease council land in Marion and the first in Trott Park. Since the garden was officially opened earlier this year the group has grown to 15 members and is starting to work with the local men's shed, kindy, youth centre and crèche.

In addition to helping people grow healthy food, community gardens bring people together to form friendships and build strong neighbourhoods. Julie does a great job up there as well with the community centre and I know that they use some of the produce from the gardens on the wonderful wood fire pizza oven they have up there and it brings the community together. So, congratulations to Malcolm McDonnell.

Ms Bedford interjecting:

Mr WINGARD: Some say better than a schnitzel, some say on par. They are very good. Perhaps we will go up there and have a pizza, speaking to the Deputy Speaker having a seat at the back, but maybe we will have a pizza instead of a schnitzel next time. Another great community organisation and a couple of people who work very hard on this is Andy Fry and Keith Noble. Andy is the President of the Cove Soccer Club and Keith Noble is manager of the Cove Sports and Community Club. These guys have done a marvellous job working on that facility and on the soccer club in particular. Andy has done a great job to professionalise the club, improve the coaching to an outstanding level and as a result they are getting some great results, both on and off the field. So, those two gentleman are doing a marvellous job and are well rewarded with Unsung Hero Awards for 2014.

Another person I would like to mention—this time for a Community Spirit Award—is John Dicker, president of the O'Halloran Hill Riding for the Disabled group. He does an outstanding job as well, as does everyone up there at the Riding for the Disabled organisation. John is a committed volunteer and has helped people with a disability enjoy riding horses for many years now. This group does outstanding work. I was up there the other day having a good look around their facility and getting involved with a couple of things, and they have got a few issues they want to get sorted out, issues that have arisen around fire safety, so we are working hard with them. Again, a great community organisation and collectively they all deserve their Unsung Hero Award.

Another one is a Role Model Award for Monica Lubanska. Monica has a passion for healthy living which she is sharing with the community to help people make healthy choices about what they eat and drink. She has spoken about the benefits of raw plant foods on FIVEaa radio, spoken at an open day at Sheidow Park Primary School—who themselves have a great vegie garden, as well—and she has regular posts on social media. She is passionate about seeing juice bars and raw food options at venues across Adelaide.

Finally, I would like to mention another great community member who received an Unsung Hero Award for community work, and that is Bill Heycox. He does a marvellous job with the lights in his front yard at Christmas time raising money for the Flying Doctor Service; in excess of $10,000 over the years. He also drives around people from Minda Home and the Masonic Village. He is an outstanding unsung hero in my electorate.

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