The community have nominated with gusto, leading to eight nominees for the day’s most coveted honour - 2024 Citizen of the Year.
The field includes volunteers and community champions working across a number of areas in the community, but all with one goal in mind - making Edward River a better place to live, work and play.
Nominees are Bianca Armytage, Sue Buckley, Gloria Griffiths, Di Hand, Val Hardman, Kaye McCabe, Anthony Michael and Neville Purtill.
Another strong nomination category was Community Group of the Year, with six nominees.
They include groups with a focus on education, health and providing social and entertainment outlets to the district.
Other awards to be presented on the day include Young Citizen of the Year, Environmental Citizen of the Year, Community Event of the Year, Arts & Culture Award, Junior Arts & Culture Award, Sports Award and Junior Sports Award.
You can find a full list of nominees on page 10 of today’s edition.
The awards will be presented at the Edward River Australia Day ceremony at the Deniliquin Town Hall this Friday.
It will commence with a free breakfast cooked by the Rotary Club of Deniliquin from 8.30am, in the Civic Plaza adjacent the Deniliquin Town Hall.
The celebrations will move inside for the official ceremony, to start at 9.45am.
The proceedings will feature an Australian Citizenship Ceremony, followed by Australia Day Awards presentations.
There will also be performances from the Sing Australia Choir and The Edward River Concert Band.
Giving the address will be local Australia Day ambassador Bill Hetherington.
Mr Hetherington has lived in Deniliquin his whole life and was appropriately awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his services to the community in 2015.