On Wednesday May 22, The Werribee River Association celebrated their annual Volunteer Week Thank You Dinner. The dinner is an opportunity for WRA to say thank you to our wonderful community involved in our litter, landcare and citizen science programs. The night took place at Old Habits on Watton Street, a fantastic locally owned craft beer and wine bar and was catered by Wyndham resident Kidist Solomon who cooked up a vegan Ethiopian feast!
The evening was a great chance for WRA supporters and volunteers to hang out, chat and share food and drink. We celebrated our many achievements, including the planting of thousands of plants, shrubs and trees, and removing hundreds of kilos of litter from our streets and waterways.
Entertainment included an all-in song, written by our Programs Manager, Jess Fairfax about Ballan Rd and the need to restore it to its prior glory, as well as a beautiful poem about the Werribee River, written and recited by WRA member Rory Hudson.
A big congratulations to the recipients of our volunteer awards:
Ness Harwood – is a champion cleaner-up-er, working as part of the Love Our Street 3030 team for a number of years. Ness is always enthusiastic and social; a joy to work with. She was even rewarded one day, by finding $50 in and amongst the mess.
Lisa Bruens – is an active member of the clean-up group Love Our Street 3030 and also have more recently commenced attending Love Our Street 3024. Lisa was been active at our Wyndham Waste Alliance, and is always enthusiastic about education and advocacy work to further our litter clean-ups, as removal alone, just doesn’t stack up.
Swati and Rory – Swati and Rory are longtime advocates for the Werribee River. Rory has written beautiful poetry about the river and Swati has been our bubble fairy at our inaugural River FEST. They are both active members of Love Our Street 3030 Point Cook and share a deep love and commitment to caring for our incredible natural environment.
Thomas Matthews – Thomas has been undertaking an informal internship with the association, working across multiple programs, events and activities. Thomas has written some great articles and reports, and also supported our community education and engagement work. He brings enthusiasm and a willingness to do such a diverse range of tasks.
Â
Well done everyone! And see you back out on the streets and along our waterways, caring for Country.