{"id":8085,"date":"2025-05-15T11:02:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T01:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/?p=8085"},"modified":"2025-05-15T11:02:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T01:02:26","slug":"casey-altruism-optimism-locally-says-mp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/2025\/05\/15\/casey-altruism-optimism-locally-says-mp\/","title":{"rendered":"CASEY: Altruism, optimism locally, says MP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pauline Richards, Cranbourne MLA, has told State Parlia-ment about the qualities of altruism and opptimism evident in the City of Casey.<br>Ms Richards asked Local Government Minister Nick Staikos to provide an update on \u201chow we are supporting the City of Casey to be an inclusive and vibrant place for people to live, work and raise a family\u201d.<br>Ms Richards asked Mr Staikos to visit to and \u201chear how wonderful the people are in Cranbourne\u201d.<br>\u201cI had the pleasure of joining the member for Narre Warren North at the City of Casey awards evening<br>in what was a night of nights,\u201d Ms Richards said.<br>\u201cI am so pleased to represent and live in a community known for our altruism and optimism, and that was on full display at the awards night.<br>\u201cI would like to acknowledge the recipients of the awards.<br>\u201cThe Casey Citizen of the Year was a joint award with Anthony Hanna, whose generosity and dedication shone through in his volunteer work at Vinnies across three locations.<br>\u201cHis deep commitment to community safety and education is evident in his roles with Neighbourhood Watch Casey, Merinda Park Learning and Jen Community Housing.<br>\u201cThe other joint Citizen of the Year award goes to Antonia Arfaras, who has been a dedicated volunteer for over 30 years, making a profound impact on stroke awareness and advocacy. Her tireless efforts earned her the 2024 National Stroke Foundation Volunteer of the Year award, and she continues to inspire through leadership at the Friends of Wilson Botanic Park. \u201cThe Senior of the Year Joseph Anthony Swindle is passionate about his community. \u201cUncle Joe strives to make everyone feel happy, included and supported in their cultural journey, whether he is helping mob trace their bloodlines, lending an ear or helping at the Casey Aboriginal gathering place. He is always there with a warm smile. \u201cThe Casey Young Citizen of the Year is Matthew Young. Matthew James Young has a dedication to sports and charity and has made a powerful impact, raising nearly $20,000 for kids\u2019 cancer research.<br>\u201cHis commitment to giving back extends to blood donations and inspiring excellence in his workplace, and he is of course a great and<br>very famous, well known and well-loved St Peter\u2019s alumnus. \u201cThe Equity and Inclusion Award went<br>to Ren Tumath, who has been an influential volunteer in Casey for over 30 years focusing on supporting the LGBTIQ+ community and founding Casey Cardinia Pride. \u201cTheir advocacy work extends to disability rights, serving on the Casey Disability Advisory Group. \u201cThe Woman of the Year is Chanchal Kumavat. She is a vibrant community leader whose work has uplifted thousands in Casey,\u201d Ms Richards said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pauline Richards, Cranbourne MLA, has told State Parlia-ment about the qualities of altruism and opptimism evident in the City of Casey.Ms Richards asked Local Government Minister Nick Staikos to provide an update on \u201chow we are supporting the City of Casey to be an inclusive and vibrant place for people to live, work and raise&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8091,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8085\/revisions\/8091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}