At a ceremony held by the Emerald Village Association on Wednesday 26 October at the Hills Hub, former Emerald CFA captain Paul Yandle was “honoured” to receive the Emerald Citizen of the Year award.
“Very humbling, [I’m] very honoured to be considered,” Mr Yandle said.
Mr Yandle began his 35-year tenure at the CFA in 1985, becoming apparatus officer at the Emerald brigade in 1987 and working various lieutenant positions before taking what would be a 22-year role as captain and head of the brigade.
He said being captain for 22 years has given him encouragement that the community would be able to come together to get out of a major bushfire or disaster.
“We’re not likely to see the type of flooding they’re seeing up in Echuca at the moment, but if you ever had something like that, all those community groups and the people who we’ve got in this town would pull together and get the township through it,” he said.
“Not just CFA, but all the different clubs; rotary, lions, tennis clubs… footy clubs, netball clubs, they all get involved in some way to do whatever they need to do.”
Other award recipients at the 2022 Emerald Citizen of the Year ceremony included 19-year-old wildlife rescuer Holly Surridge, who was recognised for her work caring for birds, wombats and possums at the Emerald Monbulk Wildlife Shelter in the three years she has been volunteering.
Ms Surridge volunteers once or twice a week, and will take on the role of showing new volunteers how to feed the variety of native wildlife at the shelter.
Emerald Village Association Vice President Peter Maloney said the Citizen of the Year awards publicly celebrates the work of community members who don’t ask for recognition.
“In most occasions, it’s not recognised, or no-one says ‘job well done,’ so we’ve decided to change that,” Mr Maloney said.
2021 Citizen of the Year, and three-times past Cardinia Shire Council Mayor Graeme Legge presented trophies to award recipients – a fitting role for a man who has spent 70 years serving Emerald as a volunteer firefighter.
The Emerald co-operative society was named community group or organisation of the year.
