Early education campaigner Amy Shine has been named our Citizen of the Year at 2019 Australia Day celebrations.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Ms Shine is the director of Forbes Preschool – and oversaw the opening of the new state-of-the-art facilities in 2016.
It was only brought about, Council’s General Manager Steve Loane said in reading out the award citation, by four years of campaigning for funding and political support.
The resulting $2.1 million preschool is a place where thousands of children will learn to discover the world around them and learn through play, he said.
“(Amy) strives to create a welcoming and inclusive environment within the facility which through her hard work has been able to fund additional children’s services that may ordinarily not be available to many families within the community,” the citation reads.
And that means the preschool isn’t confined to its four walls: the team regularly attends community events, running educational activities and games and ensuring that young children and their families feel welcome, safe and included.
READ ALSO: Forbes’ Heather Mann now an OAM
Amy recently delivered a petition bearing hundreds of signatures to Council appealing for improvements to a North Forbes park that hasn’t had play equipment for a generation.
As a result, play equipment is to be installed in Jenny Murphy Park.
Amy told the crowd gathered by Lake Forbes on Saturday night that her passion is to ensure all children have equal opportunity to get a good start.
“I love what I do, I think every little bit of change we can make, inclusion and making sure everyone feels that same sense of belonging and gets that same start at a very young age, is going to make a difference for our community and especially for the long term,” she said.
“That’s why I’m so committed to helping all our community, the younger generation in community, and more of our vulnerable families in town as well.
“I want to make sure everyone gets a go.”
READ ALSO: Our Junior Citizen of the Year Sam Mackay
It’s not something she can do, or tries to do, on her own.
“All the work I do is not on my own,” Amy said.
“There are so many amazing people out here tonight that I have been on committees with, and worked with, it is so not an individual job.
“I think my mum and dad always taught me we’re all the same, no-one’s better than anyone else and that’s something that’s really stuck with me.”
Amy is the daughter of Barry and Sue Shine.
“Thank you so much,” she said. “This is a great honour and Forbes is a great town.”
Read about our junior citizen on page 2, more from Australia Day on pages 4 and 8, with photos on pages 14 and 15.
