Wodonga Council wishes the best of luck to all the nominees in the Red Carpet Youth Awards.
Here's a closer look at each of the nominees in the Individual Community Service and Sport and Recreation Volunteer award categories.
Individual Community Service Award:
Adelaide Roach, 17
Family means everything to Adelaide.
As one of five siblings, four girls and one boy, Adelaide is the middle child and values spending time with her large family.
The Wodonga Senior Secondary College student has lived in Wodonga for the past eight years, immersing herself in the fabric of the community with her various volunteer roles.
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Adelaide volunteers countless hours to community organisations such as Wodonga Girl Guides, Wodonga SES, Albury Gang Show and Wodonga Police.
Family relationships are important to her, which is why she joined Wodonga Girl Guides, following in the footsteps of her older sisters.
It used to be a way to connect with her sisters but after discovering a love of the organisation, she has stuck with it ever since.
Adelaide has been with the movement for nine years and is currently a junior leader, helping to run the Murray Munchkins unit that her oldest sister runs each Monday afternoon.
Adelaide joined the Albury Gang Show, a theatre company run by the scouts and girl guides associations in Albury and Wodonga, as another way to connect with her family.
Her oldest sister had joined, so she joined the following year and her youngest sister joined two years after.
As a past choreographer for the show, Adelaide has stepped into a new role in assistant production alongside three other cast members.
Bhakta Bhattarai (Durga), 24
Bhakta is known locally as Durga.
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He was born and raised in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal and has been rsiding in Wodonga alongside his six family members since 2012.
With an interest in caring for people of all ages, Durga has a background in home and community care, as well as aged care and is currently in his last year as a registered nurse.
Most recently, Durga has been involved in organising events for non-profit organisation, Albury Wodonga Multicultural Community Events.
He has been involved in organising events such as women empowerment projects, concerts with international artists and local youths, movie screenings, as well as cultural dances and youth picnics.
Durga has also been involved in running What’s On Your Mind Today?
In 2016, Durga volunteered to be a guest speaker for Diversity Day at Kiewa Primary School.
He shared with students, parents and teachers his experiences as a refugee, including growing up in a refugee camp, the schooling, food and shelter and adapting to living in Australia.
Durga has previously helped cook and serve meals for the homeless through Birallee Neighbourhood House.
Volunteering has changed his perception on many things like culture and religion.
Durga recently worked with Nikki Hind, Australia’s first legally blind fashion designer and social entrepreneur to be a part of Blind Grit photoshoot, which raised money to help disabled people in Australia.
Darlene Knights, 17
Darlene demonstrates a high level of community spirit, volunteering many hours to create an enjoyable experience for others.
She is a highly committed and motivated young individual, who strives to achieve the best for herself as well as others around her.
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This is demonstrated through her strong involvement in the Albury-Wodonga community.
Her list of achievements include participating in the Wodonga Carols by Candlelight choir, assisting with the Albury Carols by Candlelight face painting, including setting up, volunteering for a few hours and packing down.
She has also helped organise, run, set up and pack down the Good Friday Community Easter Egg Hunt at Junction Square in Wodonga.
Darlene’s involvement is further exhibited through her strong engagement within her church community.
She volunteers every Sunday and Friday, working with the kids team and youth team, including organising activities, games, food and devotions.
Darlene also plays with the band, entertaining the church community through her music.
In 2018, Darlene served on the Red Carpet committee, developing the new logo alongside the other required duties and on top of her year 11 studies at school.
This year at school, she has volunteered at the Mother's and Father's Day stall at school, giving up recess' and lunchtimes between classes to help other volunteers.
Darlene has also gone on to pursue her long-term goal of starting up a lunchtime group in the secondary school community, called Transform.
This incorporates different games each week, food and talking, requiring unique planning for each week and commitment to organise and run.
Darlene's many types of involvements within the local community illustrate her dedication to serving others with no complaint, this year on top of her year 12 studies.
Savannah West, 24
Savannah has embraced her sexuality after ‘coming out’ at the age of 19.
Growing up in the small town of Hillston (population 1000), she kept her sexuality secret until leaving school and moving away for fear her sexual preference would not be accepted.
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Savannah is heavily involved in advocating beside and for other young people in the community, which has been a passion and drive within her community work and involvement.
Savannah feels she is lucky that her family were accepting and have embraced her sexuality, but is aware not all young LGBTIQ+ have this opportunity.
This led to her volunteering with WayOut Wodonga that saw her start engaging in community projects and advocacy work, including presenting gender and sexuality educational workshops to secondary school classes, attend meetings fortnightly to create solutions to address problems or needs for the LGBTIQ+ youth in the community.
Savannah volunteered with the North East Pride Collective, which saw her given the opportunity to take on a lead role in creating the inaugural Rainbow Ball for the LGBTIQ+ youth.
More than 200 young people attended from throughout the North East.
Savannah attended the Mandala Leadership Camp after receiving a scholarship, which educated her on how to be a better leader.
She also advocated at Wodonga TAFE to make the education institute more LGBTIQ+ inclusive, which has now seen TAFE in the process of establishing a student diversity group.
As Savannah is approaching 25 years of age, she sees it as her duty to pass the baton onto the next wave of emerging young leaders.
From her engagement with young people, she knows the future of community work and advocacy is in good hands.
Moving forward, she will continue to collaborate with service providers including local government to meet the needs of LGBTIQ+ young people.
She will continue her studies with La Trobe University in social work to become a professional and take on systematic policy change.
Sport and Recreation Volunteer Award:
Julia Henderson, 19
Softball flows through Julia’s veins.
She has been involved in the sport since being introduced by her mother at the age of 12.
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Julia fell in love with the Wodonga Warriors Softball Club atmosphere, the people she was playing with and the different coaches and coaching styles.
She soon followed her desire to coach softball and pass on her love of the game.
Coaching juniors has taught Julia valuable life lessons.
Julia sees herself continuing to coach in the future to keep the sport of softball evolving and continuing within the community.
She has coached both juniors and seniors for seven years, having coached teams of all age levels and various abilities, including softball state championships where many state titles and accreditations have been claimed over the years.
Most recently, Julia has travelled to North East primary schools where she has taught students about softball, allowing wider connections to be formed that help create a diverse club and community.
Andrea Bejsta, 18
Andrea is always the first to put up her hand to help others and is committed to her chosen field of scouting.
As a member of the 1st Baranduda Venturer Scout Unit, Andrea has taken on the role as leader of the Cub Pack.
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Andrea has filled the role over the past 18 months; attending meetings and a number of weekend camps, as well as organising activities.
She is still fulfilling this role.
Andrea has also played a leadership role in the Venturer Level Unit and had a regional youth role.
She has also been on the Unit Council for more than two years and has applied herself over the past three years to acquire the Queen’s Scout Award, the highest award in scouts that involved more than 40 hours of community service, in addition to helping the environment and visiting community groups.
In addition, Andrea has been an inaugural member of the North Region Youth Council where she represented Venturers from Echuca, Benalla and Wodonga.
Andrea is currently undertaking training to become a recognised Cub Scout Leader, while completing her year 12 studies.
Chelsea Styan, 18
Chelsea is a year 12 Wodonga Senior Secondary College student who leads a busy life revolving around being a Navy Cadet as well as coaching and playing sports.
She plays AFL for the Murray Bushrangers and Thurgoona Bulldogs and is the sports house captain at her school.
Chelsea is a volunteer coach at Baranduda girls Auskick (ages 5 to 12), once a week.
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The coaching role involves running training drills and small games to help participants enjoy sport and improve their football skills.
Chelsea organised for the Baranduda and Albury girls to play in a curtain raiser game before the local women’s AFL League Grand Final last season.
The girls all jumped at the opportunity.
Chelsea’s coaching commitments do not stop there, she was a development coach of the under 16 girls V/Line Cup Representative Team (AFL).
She assisted in running trainings and the team selection and went to Gippsland for the carnival where she assisted in taking the warm-up and was also the runner.
Away from sporting circles, Chelsea has been a Navy Cadet for three years where she is a Leading Seaman, teaching younger cadets maritime activities and leadership skills.
In particular, she enjoys the sailing component the most.
At Easter this year, Chelsea participated in the Navy Cadets National Sailing Regatta where her team placed fourth.
Chelsea enjoys volunteering with groups because she enjoys teaching others the skills she has learnt and passing on her knowledge to help others improve and grow.
She enjoys being a role model for girls and helping the younger generation play AFL and learn the sport she loves
Christopher Watson, 17
Christopher is a young person who is passionate about achieving his many goals.
The year 11 student at Wodonga Senior Secondary College is working towards his dream career goal as either an osteopath, physiotherapist or a combat medic in the army.
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Within the sport and recreation industry, Christopher took Tae Kwon Do lessons for six years, which taught him commitment.
He then went onto soccer for a year, developing teamwork.
More recently, he has been involved in the Australian Army Cadets for three years, and is entering his fourth year.
Christopher is currently a Sergeant within the Australian Army Cadets, with a dream to be promoted to Cadet Under Officer.
He recently achieved the student of merit/duxes award of the Cadet Under Officer/Warrant Officer course at Puckapunyal.
Christopher organises a group of 18 to 28 adolescents to do activities such as marching, learning to use maps, radios and compasses, as well as first aid.
He also helps organise major activities, such as an annual camp that runs for a week and regular weekend camps.
Christopher is passionate in assisting his peers to become leaders within their own areas.
He is pleased to help individuals grow into not only successful people, but into valued members in society.