2024 East Cost Volunteer Awards  

We celebrated our East Coast 2024 Volunteer Award winners at the Medway Golf Club on Wednesday 14 May in Maidstone and what a wonderful occasion it was!  

These awards formally recognise the wonderful work that all our school coordinators, mentors and learning support volunteers do, and are a fantastic opportunity to stop and reflect on all that we achieved over the past year through your incredibly generous contributions.  

Congratulations to all nominees and winners, the Victorian winners were: 

Lori Benassi, Glenroy West Primary School: Learning Support Volunteer of the Year;  

Reno Demicoli, Lara Primary School: Mentor Volunteer of the Year;  

Daniel Chittenden, Rollins Primary School: School Coordinator of the Year 

Special Mention of the Year: Brian Richardson, Bayside College.   

It was with sadness that we acknowledged a beloved volunteer, Forrest Sklar, who sadly passed away suddenly at the beginning of the year.  

The amazing support of the classroom teachers that our volunteers support was also recognised with the Learning Support Teacher Recognition Award. Acknowledgement was given to Ben Krahe rom Rollins Primary School, Erin McIntosh from Lollypop Creek Primary School, Mia Nation from Dandenong South Primary School, Andrea Hardwick from Riverbend Primary School, Denise Mendham from Glenroy College and Nancy Cozzo and Icana D’Aprano from Brunswick South Primary School.  

Our long serving volunteers were presented with a certificate and lapel pin that can be worn on the EdConnect lanyard to recognize their years of service. Lapel pins were presented to Dimitri Midas and Catherine Young for 10 years of service, while Anne Poppins and Brian Richardson received lapel pins for 15 years of service! Congratulations and thank you for all your years of support!  

It was a great celebration of all your time and effort, and a lovely way for our volunteers to come together and reflect on their contributions to helping students thrive.  

We would also like to thank the staff at Medway Golf Club for their support in hosting our awards ceremony.