General News
26 December, 2023
Meet our town's top achieving citizens
Community members who have contributed to the town in an extensive and honourable way will be recognised at the 2024 Warracknabeal and District Australia Day Awards.
The judging panel made the challenging decision on award recipients earlier this week, with the individuals to be recognised at the Australia Day celebrations at Warracknabeal Racecourse on Friday, January 26.
“We were very happy with the calibre of nominations for all three categories; Citizen of the Year, Young Achiever of the Year and Sportsperson of the Year, and thankful to community members who took the time to submit nominations,” Tony Gregson, chair of the judging panel, said.
The winner of the 2024 Citizen of the Year is Stacey Drage.
Stacey has contributed to many organisations in the community and further afield and the judging panel commented it’s hard to estimate her significant influence in helping to make this community a great place to live.
With involvement in about 20 organisations, Stacey has been on committees, taken on executive roles, coached sports teams, sold raffle tickets, cooked barbecues, headed fundraising events and more.
The most notable involvements are with the Swimming Club, the Town Hall committee and the three levels of schooling.
The judging panel recognised Stacey as being competent, hardworking, passionate and positive and deserving winner for Citizen of the Year.
Graeme Holland has been announced as 2024 Sportsperson of the Year.
The judging panel recognised Graeme as being known well throughout the community and a hard worker.
The award considered administrators, coaches and players, and Graeme has done all three.
He has been a stalwart of the Brim community throughout his life, ever since joining the Committee of the Brim Sports and Social Centre at 19.
Graeme continues to contribute today to both the Brim and Warracknabeal communities.
Over many years Graeme has consistently taken on various executive and leadership roles, fundraising tasks, behind the scenes jobs and coaching roles in both cricket and football.
In addition to his continual support of sport in his communities, Graeme has been an active member of the Brim Lions Club, St Mary’s Primary School, CFA and Warracknabeal Anglican Parish.
The winning nominee for Young Achiever of the Year is Jane Smith.
Jane has lived in Warracknabeal just three years and in that short time has embedded herself into the community.
Leaving school and NSW aged 18, Jane answered an advertisement to work as a barista at The Van in Warracknabeal.
She has also been working at Take-a-Break in Warracknabeal as she trains to be a childcare provider.
In her spare time Jane volunteers with the Rotary Breakfast Program at Warracknabeal Primary School.
The Australia Day breakfast and celebrations will kick off at 8am.
Entertainment will be provided by the Warracknabeal Band and acoustic guitarist and singer Jeff Woodward.
Guest speaker will be Emily Pearson, daughter of Greg and Juile Pearson, who was brought up on the family farm in Crymelon, just out of Warracknabeal.
A past student of Warracknabeal Primary School and Warracknabeal Secondary College, Emily has always loved challenging herself and learning.
She loved her involvement in the local Eagles netball club, the dance school and her part time jobs at the Warracknabeal Pharmacy during school and assisting at St Mary’s Primary School in her GAP year.
Emily went on to study Science at Monash University and after graduating with a Science degree, she was accepted into the Teach for Australia program.
This commended her journey of following her passion for education and empowering young people.
Emily has worked as Principal Researcher at the Australian Education Research Organisation leading research on school improvement; Assistant Principal at a large school in Melbourne leading school operations; and Head of Strategy and Impact at Teach For Australia leading evaluation and strategic planning.
Emily now combines her experiences from education systems and schools to lead meaningful change towards education equity, so that all children can live a life of choice and contribution.
Emily is now a manager at Learning First consultancy, leading evaluation projects and research to support education policy.
Emily is also a Non-Executive Director of the not-for-profit organisation Centre for Non-Violence.
Emily is married to James McFarlane, enjoys life in Kensington, Melbourne but always looks forward to trips home to Warracknabeal and the family farm.