Announcing Our 2023 Citizen of the Year Award Winners!

The District Council of Yankalilla is proud to announce the recipients of our 2023 Citizen of the Year Awards. The Awards recognize the incredible efforts of those in our community who rise to the challenge and demonstrate leadership, initiative and active citizenship.

The Awards will be presented at our Australia Day Celebration at Yankalilla Memorial Park on Thursday 26 January at 9am.

Congratulations to all our winners and nominees.

Nominations for these awards can be made year round online – visit www.yankalilla.sa.gov.au/australiaday for more information.

• Citizen of the Year – Keren Webber and Gayle Carr
• Young Citizen of the Year – Levi Young
• Community Event of the Year – Heritage Fleurieu Coast Festival
• Active Citizen Award – Evette Wolf
• Mayor’s Award – Joy Whellum

Citizen of the Year - Keren Webber and Gayle Carr

Keren Webber and Gayle Carr are the joint Coordinators of the 5CY Community Pantry, which provides emergency food for individuals and families who need food to feed themselves or their families and who are unable to do so due to varied and many circumstances. The group provides this essential service without judgement or prejudice and with the intention of restoring dignity to reluctant recipients in dire need. The 5CY Group serves the communities of the Yankalilla District Council which extends from Myponga, Yankalilla, Inman Valley, Cape Jervis, Normanville, Carrickalinga and the many dispersed hamlets in between.

After nearly 30 years of continuous service, in 2019 this service to the community was about to be shut down due to the lack of volunteers. In addition to this, two years of a pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns and employment vulnerabilities caused the circumstances of many families living in our community to change radically. This exponentially increased the number of weekly callouts where food and other necessities were required.

In response to these pressures, Karen and Gayle have proven themselves to be critical to the continuation of such an indispensable community service. During the past three years Keren and Gayle have enrolled, trained and motivated an essential group of volunteers. By coordinating the volunteers, they introduced a structure and procedures to maintain a stocked food pantry to enable immediate response time to any callout. From Monday to Friday there is a volunteer rostered to be on-call to respond to emergency food callout needs. They have been recognised from many groups within the community who have supported the cause with both monetary donations and drop off points for people to leave non-perishable foods.

Young Citizen of the Year - Levi Young

Levi Young is a young man who completed his studies at Yankalilla area School (YAS) in 2023 and is now looking to begin his career working and studying in the field of Childcare and Education.

Levi was an inaugural member of the Fleurieu Coast Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) and has continued to be an active member for the past 5 years. YAC is an official advisory committee to the District Council of Yankalilla and is made up of young people aged 12-25 years who meet regularly to plan events, determine the risks and barriers involved in them, work through issues and assist in delivery of local events and activities for youth. Levi has assisted with the planning, organisation and running of events for local youth including Night at the Graveyard - outdoor cinema, skate competition, live music, Summer Beach Fest, Phat Rager-discos, paintball and much more.

In 2022, Levi was chosen by teachers and students at YAS to be a School Senior Leader. He has used this opportunity to drive positive change within the school using student voice. These changes have included the rebranding of the school values and leading changes to schoolhouse teams, and instilling the need to be culturally inclusive with names and designs. Levi has also been very respectfully vocal when speaking with politicians around issues for young people in a rural setting when they visit the school.

Levi is an excellent role model for other young people at school and in the community and is focused on helping and educating children as a pathway to employment.

Community Event of the Year - Heritage Fleurieu Coast Festival (The Yankalilla and District Historical Society Inc)

The Heritage Fleurieu Coast Festival is a biennial festival organised by the Yankalilla and District Historical Society (YDHS) to coincide with South Australia’s History Month in May. It consists of several events across the region celebrating the heritage of our buildings, towns, open spaces and natural resources.

The aim of the Festival, which was first held in 2018, is to promote heritage tourism in the whole district and to promote its rich and diverse heritage value.

The very successful 2022 Heritage Fleurieu Coast Festival consisted of 33 events. In addition to organising some of these events, the Heritage Fleurieu Coast Festival Committee assisted and encouraged individuals and groups to organise their own events, which gave the community an opportunity to tell their story.

Active Citizen Award - Evette Wolf

Self-funded, Evette formed the Yankalilla Youth Theatre in 2020 and has facilitated and showcased eight youth performances during the last two years, despite covid impacts. Her passion and enthusiasm for youth theatre is contagious and her skill in teaching drama and connecting to young people is clearly evident and appreciated by children, their parents and others in the community.

Evette has a strong focus on reaching all age demographics in the community and as a result has impacted a diverse cross section of the community, including all generations. During 2022 the Yankalilla Youth Theatre engaged with the community and collected over 50 questionnaires across all living generations in the community about their own childhood, in preparation for their performance of ‘Generations in 2023.

Yankalilla Youth Theatre members and their parents have formed enduring friendships and community connections. The children have grown in confidence dealing with their peers and also with adults of all ages. In total, since 2020, over 40 local children have participated in and been positively impacted by the experience and in November 2022 two members of the Yankalilla Youth Theatre were winners of the hotly contested Lions Speaking Competition.

Evette has created a wonderful place for young people in our community to be free to express themselves within a theatre arrangement, whilst entertaining and engaging the broader community.

Mayor’s Award - Joy Whellum

Joy is a quiet achiever who is actively involved in five volunteer organisations within the District Council of Yankalilla area. She is currently Treasurer and manages the websites for the following groups: Festival Fleurieu, Books and Words and the Yankalilla, Rapid Bay and Myponga Agricultural and Horticultural Society. In addition to this she volunteers and manages the website for the Fleurieu Environment Centre and documents statistical data for the Fleurieu Coast Visitor Centre. Joy does all of this with a smile and is friendly and helpful to all concerned. Joy is also Treasurer and website manager for a group outside of the Yankalilla District.

Joy provides a valuable service and support to the organisations that she volunteers for and has been described as providing much of the ‘glue’ that holds these community groups together.

Financial details are an important part of the running of any organisation and Joy is both knowledgeable and detailed in this regard. As Chair of the Festival Fleurieu Board her input and experience are invaluable as it is to the other groups that she is part of. In today's society a fully functioning and up to date website is also an important marketing and communication tool. Joy's expertise in this area allows these groups to present a professional image to the wider community. In many cases Joy also monitors the group email and either, answers any enquiries or forwards the email to the appropriate person. This again provides a level of professionalism to these groups.