The Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset has announced the five finalists who have been nominated for the 2009 Grahamstown Citizen of the Year Award.
The Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset has announced the five finalists who have been nominated for the 2009 Grahamstown Citizen of the Year Award.
Five special citizens were chosen from nominations submitted by the public by a panel of former Citizens of the Year last Friday. The Grahamstown Citizen of the Year will be announced at a gala banquet held on Saturday 11 September.
This year, the five citizens are, in no particular order, Francois Mentoor, Mark Price, Noluvo Sideba, Michael Whisson and Joyce Sewry.
Francois Mentoor is a born and bred Grahamstonian who has rendered service to his community throughout his life. Much of his work involves encouraging young people to stay away from drugs, alcohol and crime and to lead wholesome lives.
He believes that getting them the play sport and music in their leisure time is key. He actively recruits young players for the Swallows cricket team and for the local rugby club. His weekends are often spent driving busloads of players to matches outside of Grahamstown.
Mark Price has been deeply involved in setting up a functional recycling project in Grahamstown. The project collects waste from the Municipal landfill site and is sorted according to certain criteria.
The success of the project is the promotion of environmental awareness for recycling waste amongst the Grahamstown community and getting the Municipality on board to support his vision and initiative.
Noluvo Sidebo is a champion of community development in the villages on Kwandwe Private Game Reserve as well as assisting other surrounding villages to uplift and empower their inhabitants.
Together with her steering committee, Sidebo has established a number of projects to overcome challenges identified by her community, including a Baby and Toddler Programme, addressing alcohol abuse, transport for school children, health initiatives including food gardens, building a community centre from recycled materials and creating a Safe Park for children.
Michael Whisson, professor of Anthropology at Rhodes from 1978 to 2002, has a long record of service to the community. In 1979, he organised food relief and basket-making in Glenmore Settlement Camp.
He has served on countless committees, including the Residents Association before being elected as a DA councillor to the Makana Local Municipality in 1995 and the Cacadu District Municipality in 2000.
Joyce Sewry is nominated for her extraordinary work in the field of science and maths education in Grahamstown.
Her involvement in science and maths teaching covers several years. As a lecturer at Rhodes, her work with struggling chemistry students inspired her to raise funds for micro-chemistry kits for local under-resourced schools which she followed up with teacher training.
She is passionate about improving the quality of science teaching, and works hand-in-hand with local teachers to achieve this.
Pick n Pay is supporting the event for a third year in a row by awarding cash prizes to the winner and the finalists, which will be awarded to the charities of the winners’ choice.
Tickets for the gala function on 11 September are available from Pam Golding Properties. Call Daphne Timm on 046 622 2778 for details.
