Nominations are now open for the 2021 Bass Coast Australia Day Awards for Citizen of the Year and Young Citizen of the Year.

While 2020 has been a challenging year, it has not stopped the many beautiful acts of caring, selflessness, giving and compassion from individuals within our community.

Do you know someone living in Bass Coast who regularly goes above and beyond, you can always rely on for help, or you admire for their contribution to the community?

These Awards allow us to recognise our local heroes for all they do in our community.

Nominating your local hero is easy and only takes a few minutes.

Visit www.basscoast.vic.gov.au/ausday2021 to nominate someone, or to read the guidelines.

Nominations close on Monday, 23 November 2020 and the finalists and winners will be announced in the lead up to Australia Day in January 2021.

This year’s Bass Coast Young Citizen of the Year Sophie Bodling, said it was very humbling to be nominated and she is incredibly grateful that Ella Angarane, who has also contributed a lot to our community, nominated her.

“You hear of all the wonderful people who have been previously nominated and to be held to that same accolade is something truly special.” Sophie said.

“It means a lot to me to be recognised for the work I’ve done for women’s football in our area and I truly hope that it helps to inspire anyone to pull their sleeves up and help out any club, group or charity in any capacity.”

“I’m all about empowering our young people, especially women, to be the best version of themselves. So whether it’s on a footy field or putting in the time to help out your local club, any sort of relationships we can build with each other will ultimately help out our community.”

All nominees should:

• have made significant contributions to the Bass Coast community
• have acted above and beyond the scope of their regular employment or duties
• be inspirational role models
• positively impact the lives of others
• live within the Shire

Nominees for Citizen of the Year must be aged 25 years or over on 26 January 2021 and for Young Citizen of the Year must be aged 16 to 24 years on 26 January 2021. Nominations must be for individuals, as those for multiple people cannot be considered.

For more information, visit www.basscoast.vic.gov.au/ausday2021, or contact Linda Ryan via email at linda.ryan@basscoast.vic.gov.au, or phone 1300 BCOAST (226 278) or (03) 5671 2211.