Region’s youth celebrated at Council awards ceremony

Armidale Regional Council (ARC) celebrated Youth Week on Thursday 11 April with a delicious morning tea and the reactivation of the region’s Youth Awards.

Local school students and other young members of the community gathered at Town Hall to be entertained by local Indigenous performers from Mad Proppa Deadly before the ceremony.

To kick off Youth Week 2024, the Youth Awards were handed out by ARC Mayor Sam Coupland to very deserving individuals.

“I am very proud of the calibre of entrants in this year’s Youth Awards,” said Mayor Coupland. “It is great to be able to acknowledge the amazing talents and achievements of our regional young people and I want to congratulate everyone who nominated for the awards.

“It must have been a very hard decision to choose the winners from such a high calibre of entrants and I was glad I wasn’t one of the judges and had to make that decision!”

Eight Youth Awards were handed out along with two Highly Commended Awards and two awards from Zonta. Winners received a certificate, trophy, Big Chill tickets and a gift card.

Award winners included:

Volunteerism - Tykeisha Collins
Personal Growth and Resilience - Luke Weighell
Leadership and Community Services - Sophia Rose Markham
Arts and Creativity - India Smith
Sports Achievement - Jake McCann
Innovation and technology - Jackson Taylor
Environment Stewardship - Anna Gooley
Social Advocacy - Mary Paul
Highly Commended: Oscar Gates - Sports Achievement
Highly Commended: Katherine Edwards – Leadership and Community Service

Zonta Awards - Young Woman in Public Affairs

Anna Gooley
Sophia Rose Markham

Youth Week is a celebration held in early April each year that is organised by young people, for young people, in communities across the state.

Youth Week began as a NSW Government initiative in 1989, and has since grown to be a celebration of young people in every state and territory across the country.

This NSW Youth Week event is proudly funded by the NSW Government in association with Armidale Regional Council.

For more information on local Youth Week activities HERE

Published on 12 Apr 2024

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