Good Citizen Awards ceremony 2013
Call for nominations
Council documents are peppered with words like ‘empowered communities’, ‘flourishing communities’, ‘engaged communities’ ‘vibrant communities’ and ‘connected communities’. But it is people; mostly volunteers, who make our communities empowered, flourish, thrive, engaged, vibrant and connected.
Waitemata Local Board wants to recognise community volunteers; its good citizens, young and old, individual or group, who give their time to help make our communities richer for their contributions, and is calling for nominations for its second bi-annual Good Citizens’ Awards.
We’re looking for your help to acknowledge those who work selflessly from the bottom up to get things done in our community that wouldn’t be done otherwise, to take up the very hard task to fund raise for projects, to look after the environment we live in and organise others to pitch in, to do all the research that help make wise decisions, to organise communications to make sure others know what’s going on, to serve as the members of committees is our schools, sporting clubs and service groups, to fight and help resolve those wrongs that inevitably occur in communities and cities, to have the passion to call our city governors to account, to make sure there is transparency in decision-making, to quietly achieve in our community, and to have awe-inspiring and far out ideas and a vision for a better future which are able to be turned into reality.
From the people who make up our community leaders amongst the many volunteer residents, business, community centre, and heritage associations, to the many environmentally focused individuals and groups, to the special sector volunteers catering for the needs of a diverse community, to the Citizen Advice Bureau and MOTAT volunteers, to the children and young people who have shown special effort, to the unsung heroes who have long championed an idea or a cause; all who go to make the inner city communities special.
Our city and our community is the better for their endeavours, their determination and grit, their attention to detail, their advocacy, their positivism and their activism. They are the ones that when things almost seem lost they pull you back from the brink through shear hard work. They are the reliable ones who always turn up. Who just play their part. Who are the glue that holds our community together. Who never ask for recognition. Who are our true heroes.
We all know someone like that. Waitemata Local Board is seeking your nominations in 3 categories for its Good Citizens’ Awards, with successful nominees recognised at an Auckland Town Hall ceremony on 17 June. Nominations close 20 May 2015, with the awards criteria and nomination form available online at www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/waitemata.
Shale Chambers, Chair Waitemata Local Board
This post first appeared in the May edition of the Ponsonby News