FOR Cohuna local Sarah Mostyn, being nominated for a Community Hero Award is not about the accolades, but rather encouraging other people to become involved in the community and step outside their comfort zones.
“When you have got such a vibrant town as Cohuna, it is easy to want to be involved,” Ms Mostyn said.
Ms Mostyn has been nominated for the Southside Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Community Hero Award as a part of the Community Achievement Awards for regional Victoria. Her nomination recognises her volunteer work in the Cohuna community, having started, ran and organised the Cohuna Farmers and Makers market for the past four years.
“For me, it is being a part of the change I wanted to see in our community,” Ms Mostyn said. “I could see there was a need or an opportunity for there to be a monthly market in Cohuna to bring people together.
“Now I’m always at the market running around like a chicken with no head trying to organise everyone else and myself.”
Ms Mostyn also organised the Cohuna Family Fun Day earlier in the year, which provided free food, entertainment and amusements for the community with the support of the Gannawarra Shire Council and the State Government’s COVID Safe Activation Fund.
“It was important to me to have something that was inclusive for everyone to come to,” Ms Mostyn said.
“It was just awesome to see that there were families rocking up with van loads full of children, and that they could relax and enjoy the day without worrying about the kids having to come to them for money every five minutes to get something to eat or go on an amusement.”
Moving to Cohuna 10 years ago from the Gold Coast, Ms Mostyn is an accountant by trade, but is self-employed at the moment running her ecofriendly soap and skincare business, Windella Farm. This is part of the reason she was keen to see a regular market in Cohuna, as well as it being a way to bring the community together.
“It can be a little bit daunting when you are new to a community especially, but I think Cohuna is so supportive that when people put something on and have a go, they really get behind you and they are just happy to see people getting involved,” Ms Mostyn said.
“I think in a small town, community is so important, more so than in the bigger cities where you have more public resources and access to infrastructure and things like that.”
Ms Mostyn said she hopes her nomination will inspire more locals with a keen interest in the community to get involved in more things.
“I just want people to know that if someone who has moved to a strange town and didn’t know many people can do it, anyone can,” she said.
“I think it’s really great to encourage people not sit back and go “oh I wish Cohuna had this” or “I wish our town had that”.
“You can be the one that starts the wheels in motion and gets things happening for your community, because that inspires other people to do the same.”
