An awards ceremony has paid tribute to the Canberra region’s volunteers tonight, Tuesday 8 September, in a virtual celebration.
The 2020 Volunteering Awards Canberra Region narrowed down its winners from 96 nominations, highlighting the diverse range of volunteering roles taking place in the ACT region.
VolunteeringACT CEO Jean Giese said volunteers should be especially celebrated this year, playing a large community role in resilience and rebuilding post the bushfires and COVID-19.
“This year’s nominees blew us out of the water, and really represent what it means to be a Canberran,” Ms Giese said.
“It is so important to be able to celebrate the contribution of volunteers from all walks of life and even though we needed to change our event to a virtual ceremony this year, we could still shine a light on volunteering .”
Tim Miller took out 2020 Volunteer of the Year for his work across several organisations, including environmental focused Lids4Kids, which has saved over one million plastic bottle lids from going to landfill.
Roundabout Canberra, a volunteer run organisation taking donations of baby and children’s items for families in need, won the 2020 Canberra’s Choice Award.
This year’s Volunteer Team of the Year Award was shared between two organisations, Lifeline Canberra Crisis Support Service and ACT Emergency Services Agency for their work within the community wellbeing sphere.
“Given the year that’s been, these two teams have been essential to the safety and wellbeing of our community,” Ms Giese said.
“There is not enough we could do to thank these two teams for their efforts over the past year.”
This year’s award ceremony also featured a brand-new category called the Judges’ Award.
It went to Super Squad, a group of passionate Canberra Raiders fans with disabilities, who volunteer at home games during the season.
The full list of volunteers honoured at the award ceremony can be found online.
