Published on 17 May 2022
Onkaparinga's young achievers honoured during SA Youth Week
A group of local young superstars has been formally acknowledged at City of Onkaparinga’s 2022 Youth Recognition Awards.
These awards recognise, celebrate and honour young people in the region for their outstanding actions in improving their communities, self and securing their futures.
The Youth Recognition Awards are delivered by the Onkaparinga Youth Committee and are council’s flagship event during SA Youth Week.
Held over 10 days from 13 to 22 May, SA Youth Week is recognised as the state’s biggest celebration of young people aged 12–25 and includes a wide range of events and activities by and for young people.
The Youth Recognition Awards have seen the additional category of Youth Worker of the Year added this year. This new category is open to persons of any age who work with young people from the Onkaparinga area.
Over 90 nominations were received for this year’s awards and came from a range of sources including teachers, parents, youth workers and community service leaders.
Council congratulated the five outstanding achievers who received this year’s awards at the official ceremony held at Port Noarlunga Arts Centre on Monday 16 May. Here is a run-down of the recipients.
Learning Success – Amiria Mahuika
Amiria is a queer, femme biracial woman and singer/songwriter from Aotearoa. She has a strong love and passion for singing, writing and music itself. In the past three years she has grown in her musical abilities, experience, purpose and knowledge. From 2019 Amiria has been a part of the community at Base 10 Youth Centre through the programs; Rhyme Recital and Friday Night Rocks. Amiria has now moved on to her tertiary course studies with MusicSA. This is a big step for her in her music entrepreneurial career. She will be meeting new, fellow young artists and industry experts to learn from and launch her into her new exciting career.
The Learning Success category is for young people who have achieved significant academic success whether it be ‘getting the grade’, mentoring other young people to do so or who have showcased excellence in learning new skills.
Contribution to Community – Reef Fahey
Reef has worked hard raising money for Ski for Life and completed his fundraising skiing mission on World Down Syndrome Day. Reef clocked up over 400 kilometres of water skiing to create awareness for Down Syndrome and Ski for Life. He has raised over $13,000 to date, which will be split between the two causes.
The Contribution to Community category acknowledges the young people who give extra time back to community groups, schools and other programs that benefit the people of Onkaparinga.
Personal Achievement – Isaiah Muller
Isaiah lost both eyes to cancer when he was in his first years of life. He has shown great courage, resilience and bravery in living his life and being involved in as many mainstream activities as possible. He attends Southern Vales Christian College, excelling at humanities and science using special technology for reading and writing. He recently won a state Science and Engineering Challenge Award as part of a team creating a hovercraft. He has won awards at inter-school chess tournaments and was also selected for the National Goal-ball Team.
The Personal Achievement category shines a light on those who have overcome adversity and shown resilience through personal hardship to overcome the many challenges life can throw at a young person.
Business & Social Enterprise – Elsie Procter
Elsie enjoys baking and is well-known among family and friends for her delicious chocolate brownies. After a successful bake sale at home in late 2021, Elsie was keen to do it again, but COVID-19 isolation meant Elsie had to think outside the box. In early 2022, Elsie’s Sweet Delivery was born, utilising contactless delivery. She brainstormed business names, designed a logo in Canva, set up an order form using Google Forms, set up a payment process, and used Excel to keep track of the orders. Elsie completed her service by utilising an SMS for imminence and completion of each delivery.
The Business & Social Enterprise category recognises young people who have turned their ideas into business and social enterprise. It recognises young people who are innovative thinkers and change makers.
Youth Worker of the Year – Leah Stacey
Leah has successfully supported young mums throughout her career to re-engage with education and help to create a brighter future for them and their children. Nothing’s too hard for Leah—she goes above and beyond to support the young people she works with and makes them feel heard, understood and empowered. Leah’s work ethic is phenomenal. She doesn’t complain and was born to support and empower others. Every student that has had the opportunity to be supported by Leah and the program at Christies Beach High School has left a stronger person.
The new Youth Worker of the Year category recognises people who show a commitment to the wellbeing, participation and capacity building of young people. They act as role models for their peers and excel at building positive relationships with young people.