By JESSE GRAHAM
Tany celebrates top award, 40th birthday and Australia Day
A VOLUNTEER with decades of community work under her belt got a special birthday gift on 26 January, receiving the Yarra Ranges Council’s Citizen of the Year Award.
Kilsyth’s Tanya De Visser celebrated her 40th birthday on Australia Day this year and took out the council’s top Australia Day award for her tireless work to help her community.
Her award was handed down in an Australia Day Awards ceremony on 26 January at the Yarra Glen Memorial Hall, where mayor Fiona McAllister recognised the achievements of community members.
Ms De Visser has spent the last 20 years volunteering for Montrose’s Japara Neighbourhood House, Friends of Elizabeth Bridge and Kilsyth Township Group (ROCK).
She said she was surprised to receive the letter, informing her of her award, and modestly added that she thought other volunteers would have been more deserving.
However, the community lies close to Ms De Visser’s heart, and she said that some of her first interactions with Japara community house helped her to gain a job in a large bank.
“Ever since then, I’ve wanted to give back to the local community, so that people could have the same opportunities I’ve had,” she said.
“For me, volunteering is a family value – that’s what my family does.
“I hope that more people do volunteer – you get so much out of it.”
Ms De Visser has been a member of the Friends of Elizabeth Bridge group since 2005 and a member of the Kilsyth Township Group since it began in 2006.
Over that time, she said that some of her proudest moments with the township group would be working on two murals that were at the Eastern Ranges Football Club’s walls and a public toilet block – with both of the murals untouched by graffiti.
She said that her favourite thing about the Yarra Ranges was the amount of people who volunteer their time for community causes.
“You go to so many functions and meet so many people and see the amount of residents within the shire of Yarra Ranges that volunteer,” she said.
“They have the same values as you do – they value the community and they’re passionate about what they do.
“Finding that in a community or a township is absolutely amazing.”
When asked if there was anything she would like to see changed in the Yarra Ranges, Ms De Visser said she would like to see more money to invest in their communities via community centres and small grants to the group.
“Giving the community their community centres and even helping with small grants goes a long way to what people want to achieve for their communities,” she said.
In terms of the future, Ms De Visser said that Japara Neighbourhood House was working with the council on a new living and learning centre worth around $5 million.
For a full list of award recipients, visit pages 9, 10 and 11.
