Somerville Family Day
Paul MERCURIO (Hastings) (13:07): On Labour Day weekend I attended the Somerville Family Day, a great local community event that is entirely run by locals and volunteers. With humble beginnings in 2015, family day began as a fundraiser for Auskick with a sausage sizzle, three rides, four market stalls and around 500 people attending. It has now grown to over 80 market stalls, 10 rides, a huge show-and-shine car show and over 10,000 attendees. It is a day for local community groups to come together, with schools, charities, sporting clubs, the CFA, the SES, Victoria Police, the coastguard, HMAS Cerberus and our ambos all attending and supporting the community. Peninsula Aero Club even had a plane on display that was built by students from five different high schools. What I love most about the day is the focus on giving back. This year Peter Alp was the Community Member of the Year for his tireless fundraising work and advocacy for Somerville Recreation Reserve. The Lifetime Achievement Award was for Brenda Thornell, who has helped preserve Somerville’s history through her work with the historical society, and the achievement award for Maddox Gibbs, a young 17-year-old autistic man who loves to race his sprint car and inspires and mentors others. This day could not happen without the selfless and dedicated hard work of the event organisers Cally McNulty, Chrissy Kouvaras, Leah Rawlings and Leanne Coleman. I give my thanks to them and of course my thanks to the many people that volunteered their time on the day to make the Somerville Family Day the incredibly successful event that it was.