Through smoke, drought and COVID – New England Volunteers stand tall

The people of New England have stared adversity down with the support of their volunteers. It was wonderful to celebrate their efforts over the past 12 months at our virtual North West NSW ceremony for the 2020 NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards.

The 2020 NSW Volunteer of the Year for the New England region is Molly Moroney, volunteer mentor and facilitator at Youth InSearch.

2020 NSW Volunteer of the Year Award recipients for New England are:

Young Volunteer of the Year – Molly Moroney from Tamworth   

Molly has given more than 1,000 hours of invaluable support to Youth InSearch over the past two years to help mentor and guide other young people throughout regional NSW. She has been an exceptional leader to many young people who are experiencing anxiety, isolation or trauma. COVID restrictions meant Molly had to establish a virtual program so she could extend help to even more young people.

Adult Volunteer of the Year – Sarah Horne from Calala

Sarah trains, coordinates and rosters netball umpires across courts each week throughout the region. She also finds umpires to adjudicate games at the state level and is one of the leading organisers for the Westview Pirates Netball Club. She helps mentor young referees, ensuring there is a growing base to support the game.   

Senior Volunteer of the Year – Kenneth Russell from Tamworth

Ken is a visitor guide, researcher, writer and volunteer trainer at the Tamworth Power Station Museum. He has given his time over the past decade to individually categorize and archive more than 4,000 historical items and documents.

Volunteer Team of the Year – The Tenterfield Show Volunteers

The 25 volunteer team members help organise and deliver show after show for their local community, in addition to numerous other community events such as the Tenterfield Campdraft and Rodeo finals. More recently, the team has been there to help cook meals and support volunteer fire fighters headquartered at the local showground and helped distribute supplies for families impacted by the devastating drought.

Regional finalists for the awards are announced at 25 ceremonies throughout NSW and are invited to the Gala State Ceremony for the announcement of the 2020 NSW Volunteer of the Year.

The 2020 NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards are supported by principal partners the NSW Department of Communities and Justice and ClubsNSW, which represents the state’s 1,400 not-for-profit clubs.