Hellen Horton Takes Out Cowra Citizen Of The Year

Cowra’s Hellen Horton has taken out Cowra’s Citizen Of The Year award, coming up trumps ahead of a high calibre of nominations at last Thursday’s Australia Day ceremony at the Cowra Civic Centre.

“Hell” was nominated for her many years of being a youth worker in Cowra, and helping young people experiencing troubles to get their lives back on track.

She was selected as the winner by a judging panel ahead of fellow nominees Jenny Friend, Anne Jeffery, Marc McLeish, Ashleigh Ryan, Catherine Thompson and Della Toohey.

“Hell” works as a Youth Worker at the Cowra Information and Neighbourhood Centre, and has done for the last nine years.

Prior to working at CINC she volunteered at the PCYC and Headpsace.

She said she was very humbled and surprised to receive the award, and felt the award recognised her hard work.

“When you’re helping kids it’s really important to do a good job, because the job won’t get done if you don’t do it well,” she said.

“I definitely didn’t expect to win the award. My mum had to tell me to pre-pare some dot points just in case.”

“Hell” said that while being a youth worker has its ups and downs, therewere more positives than negatives.

She said what she enjoyed the most about her job was how rewarding it could be.

“Seeing what kids are truly capable of is the best part of it,” she said.

“In my nine years at CINC no two kids have been the same. They’re all individual. There’s no method to the madness, it’s just about getting to know the kids and making sure they get the support they need.”

Other award recipients at Cowra’s Australia Day ceremony included Young Citizen Of The Year - Laura Price, Dr Warren Whiley Memorial Award - Robyn Ryan and Community Group Of The Year - Cowra Garden Club.

Benson Sullivan was also nominated for Young Citizen of the year, while the other two categories had only one nomination. A citizenship ceremony was also conducted, with Cowra welcoming its newest Australian citizens Genifer Caculitan, Larence Caculitan, Gurvender Singh Hundal, Ramandeep Johal and Sunaldeep Singh.

Australia Day Ambassador Eren Incekara spoke about his career and passion piloting aircraft fort Little Wings, a charitable organisation that fly sick children from remote areas to larger cities for medical care.

The Rotary Club of Cowra hosted a free BBQ breakfast before the start of the ceremony, while the Inner Wheel Club of Cowra hosted a free morning tea afterwards.

A Peace Bell ringing ceremony was also held before the main ceremony started.

• Topics:
• Australia Day
• Awards