Community groups and volunteers

Thank you, Mayor. And I'll start on one that's been mentioned a couple of times but deserves repeating. I attended the Knox Community Awards 2026 on Wednesday night. It's in its third year now, I think, and a fantastic night on which we recognise all the incredible volunteers that put their names forward. This year drew 33 individual nominees and nine organisations, and a further 40 residents were recognised for their years of service, 10 of them for contributing more than 40 years, which we've heard.

I sat on the assessment panel alongside Councillor Williams, and we joined five award recipients from last year. So we had a front row look at the high calibre of application that was received, and it made judging and deciding very difficult. Richard Faragher was named Volunteer of the Year, recognising more than 25 years protecting Knox's natural environment. Foothills Community Care was named Organisation of the Year for its work supporting residents facing food insecurity, homelessness, isolation and financial hardship. And the panel also awarded five special honours awards, recognising volunteers that spanned chess, music, netball, mahjong and emergency services.

So my congratulations to every recipient, and also thanks to the officers who prepared the evaluation material for the panel. We found it a very professional and thorough process, as it is every year, but particularly so this year. We enjoyed the process.

On the 2nd of April, I had the privilege of visiting Restore Community Church in Laser Drive, Rowville. I was able to meet with Chris, one of the church leaders, and head pastor Ronald Rodrigo. They run Restore Community Care, which is a long-standing, now I think several years old, emergency food relief program which operates Tuesdays to Thursdays, and is one of many, as we know, operating across our community where people can call in, talk to volunteers, access pantry items. Obviously growth in demand has far outstripped, they're trying to keep up with supply, and they have a dedicated team of volunteers that service the Restore Community Care community pantry. So they coordinate with our grants team and Pathways, and I was able to commend them on the great work they're doing in helping vulnerable members of our community.

On the 22nd of April, just last week, I chaired a meeting of the Knox Community Awards Evaluation Panel, along with Councillor Williams and officers, and we had an esteemed panel of community representatives joining us to judge nominations across Volunteer of the Year, Community Organisation and Event of the Year, and special honour categories too. So the standard was exceedingly high, and we'll be announcing the recipients of those awards, I think it's the 20th of May, Mayor. So looking forward to that evening and acknowledging the great work that so many volunteers and community-focused people do in our community.

Thank you, Mayor. And I'll too acknowledge Ray Siegersma, who, I think I got that right, because Ray told me how to get it right at the Knox volunteer awards a bit earlier this year. So congratulations, Ray, on your taking out of the Knox Local Heroes, part of the Westfield initiative, and congratulations on securing the grant for the shed initiative and Rotary Club. So, congratulations.

On Wednesday just gone, it was a privilege and an honour to attend the 60-year celebration of the Knox Historical Society at Miller Homestead in Boronia. It really was a wonderful afternoon as we learned more about, and discussed, the remarkable contribution of preservation, conservation and promotion of our local history in Knox and its previous iterations. And I brought along this beautiful booklet that was put together by Secretary Karin Orpen and President Ray Peace. It's a beautiful publication and was made possible with a minor grant from Council, I think of about two and a half thousand, to provide for its printing. So that's one that I'll keep in the memory box for years to come.

And I just note, on the 10th of June, councillors had a presentation here from the Rowville Men's Shed. It was fantastic to welcome them to the Civic Centre, and I know Councillor Pearce, and I think the Mayor, supported the Men's Shed attending Council to present to us, to give us a brief on the incredible work they're doing across our community. Not only on the tools in fixing things, but also in mental health prevention and just proactively staying engaged with so many in our community. And the call-out was made, and I've passed it on to several primary schools in Tirhatuan Ward, that they're looking for more to do, looking to engage with community groups. So I encourage anyone that's part of a community group that has something that needs fixing or needs building, or that they need help with, to think about contacting the Rowville Men's Shed.

The Knox Community Awards on the 22nd of May were wonderful. I didn't know that more than 24,000 people formally volunteer in Knox. I was blown away. That's about 15 per cent of the Knox population formally volunteers, and we know there are so many more informal carers and volunteers out there as well. So it was wonderful to join the Mayor and several of my colleagues in recognising all the fantastic nominees and winners. That was on the back of the volunteering expo the week before. It was great to catch up with the Knox Repair Cafe, Outer East Foodshare, the team from the Rowville Lysterfield Community News, and so many more.

Open day at the Rowville Men's Shed was fantastic. Great to meet President Michael Walters, Secretary Mario Bernardi, and I think I saw Gordon there, the treasurer. Council proudly supports this fantastic facility. I did also get to have a chat to Dr Mark Glazebrook, who is the founder of the Knox Repair Cafe. They were on site at Rowville Men's Shed on Saturday, and he shared with me some metrics which I thought I'd just quickly share.

The Knox Repair Cafe, it's not only about repairing and repurposing things that break down or stop working, but also really helps with social connection and chats and coffees, and tackling loneliness and social isolation. Just this financial year to date, demand is up. They're reporting 90 per cent successful repairs across the board. They've diverted close to 900 kg of urban waste that was otherwise destined for landfill, and saved more than a tonne of carbon dioxide in the process. They're preparing to launch a new matching app to better connect people that need things repaired with the people that can do the repairs at the Knox Repair Cafe. So we had a chat about potentially looking at ways to help them get the message out about their new app. I look forward to supporting that over the journey.

I attended Outer East Foodshare. Incredible. I think there was about half a tonne of mince arrive in the hour or so that we were there. About a tonne of food. It was incredible. There was about 100 boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts that were flying out the door. So just amazing to see them in action and seeing what they do.

World Day of Prayer I attended with Councillor Considine and others, and I'll just skim through. The only one I really wanted to mention specifically was the announcement on Thursday the 27th of February, feels like a long time ago now, at the Knox Historical Society, where I was pleased to represent Council. Former Mayor and Aston candidate Manny Cicchiello made an election commitment, a significant one, and Council welcomes all commitments from all candidates and members of parliament, and this was one of those. The team at the historical society do a wonderful job, a volunteer team. They maintain an impressive collection of documents, maps, photographs and artefacts, and the commitment was for some new, much-needed facilities there, and I know Council will be on board with those if they come to pass.

And just a very quick one from this afternoon. I was at the Life Activities Club Knox in Ferntree Gully. That club had received a grant from Knox Council for some audio visual equipment. It was an overhead projector, a drop-down screen and some speakers. It was funded through the Community Development Fund, I think about $18,000. It's a seniors club, super well attended. They do some remarkable activities, and it was great to be there today with Peter, and we cut the ribbon and officially opened the new facility.