A COHUNA event organiser and a Kerang teenager have been honoured during this year’s Gannawarra Shire Council Citizen of the Year Awards.
Jodie Hay received council’s Citizen of the Year award during a ceremony on Wednesday, with fellow nominees Glenys Bremner, Brian Cadusch, Pam Lingenberg, Alicia Makeham and Jarrad Myers also honoured.
“I don’t have any actual talent of my own, but I’m very good at finding people who do and convincing them to join me in my evil plan,” Mrs Hay said after receiving the accolade.
“I’m really aware of what’s around in the community – I’m always looking, I’m always interested.”
This undying curiosity and “brazen” ability to ask people to be involved is a talent in itself, one which Mrs Hay uses to its full extent as events co-ordinator Operation Next Gen, via the Cohuna Progress Association.
Mrs Hay is remarkably modest about how much work she has put into town events, and at no point does she forget those who she’s worked with to make things happen.
When she talks about the projects she’s worked on, it’s always “we” and “us”.
But whenever one attends an event in Cohuna – be it the Big Cohuna Festival, the New Year’s Eve fireworks or the St Kilda Film Festival, one is sure to hear a name echoed throughout the town – Jodie Hay.
But Mrs Hay said it’s simply what you do as a member of a small community – and if that’s not enough of a reason, she blames her parents.
“My mum and dad are both involved in different community groups and have always been community minded, so I guess you just get brought up into it,” she said.
Meanwhile, Kerang Tecnhical High School student, Maddison Makeham is the Young Citizen of the Year thanks to her community work.
Nominated alongside Carmen Baulch, Tayla Champion, Hamish Laity, Sophie Peacock and Hannah Spencer, some of the projects Miss Makeham has worked on include council’s Beyond the Battle World War One film project, helping to organise activities and projects with the district’s FreeZA committee, seven years with the Kerang Scout Group and being involved in various sports clubs.
It’s an impressive list, but for Miss Makeham, there is no other way to be.
“I like helping people. I like being involved in the community and I like seeing people happy with what they are doing,” the 17-year-old said.
“When I leave school I think I’d like to go to university to be a nurse, so I think that [desire to help has] always been there – I just want to help people as much as I can.”
Miss Makeham said that she wants to be in an area of nursing that involves people – “lots and lots of people”.
