Citizens of the year awarded

Citizens of the year awarded

A talented artist has been acknowledged as Grant District Council’s 2021 Citizen of the Year. Port MacDonnell resident Jeremy Ievins received the award at a private Australia Day award presentation on Tuesday.

Mr Ievins has been involved with a range of community projects, causes and organisations during recent years, with a particular focus on youth, the environment and mental health.

Young Citizen of the Year was awarded to Allendale East resident Libby Altorfer, 24. Ms Altorfer has been an active member of the Country Fire Service since joining as a cadet nine years ago and has recently joined the Port MacDonnell SA Ambulance Service.

The Bay Escape was selected as Community Event of the Year with approximately 4500 people descending on Port MacDonnell to enjoy the volunteer run street festival in February 2020.

The Kingsley and Mount Gambier District CFS groups have been acknowledged with the new Active Citizenship Award. The groups cover the entire district of Grant as the primary emergency service for fire, vehicle accident and other emergencies locally.

They are made up entirely of volunteers with more than 300 active personnel available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The horrific fire season of 2019/20 also saw 65 of their volunteers deployed to other regions totalling 21,000 man hours on the fire ground plus many more volunteer hours spent in coordination of personnel and appliances.

Grant District Council Mayor Richard Sage said the awards recognised noteworthy involvement and service that contributed to the advancement and wellbeing of the council’s community. “As a council we feel that it is important to celebrate the award recipients and nominees as they have all made a positive difference to our community and should feel very proud to be nominated,” he said.

“Late last year council made the difficult decision to replace its annual Australia Day barbecue lunch with a private event to celebrate its Australia Day Award nominees and recipients due to COVID-19 restrictions and with the health and safety of its community foremost in mind.”

Mayor Sage said other deserving nominees who were recognised at the event were Yahl Soldiers Memorial Hall’s 100-year celebration, Liza Kirby and Aunty Michelle Jacquelin-Furr who performed a Welcome to Country at the presentation event.

2020 South Australian Young Citizen of the Year Caitlin McMahon was a special guest.

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