After a couple of rounds, a written submission and a presentation, this Saturday 17th of November was the Melbourne Awards Finalist gala. The Melbourne Awards are this city’s highest accolade and are a celebration of inspirational achievements of people and organisations whose passion and commitment have helped make Melbourne one of the most liveable cities in the world.
There are four categories: sustainability, community, multiculturalism and strengthening Melbourne’s profile. We were nominated for community contribution by a community organisation and all finalists were amazing organisations: Homie, Channel 31 and Dialogue in the Dark. Just being nominated amongst them was incredible…
The gala was beautiful! Jane Bunn (Clare’s favourite meteorologist) was the MC and Claire Bowditch and Thando belted out some great tunes with the Right Honorable Lord Mayor, Sally Capp, on tambourine. We sat with members of African Music and Cultural Festival and enjoyed the delicious dinner by Epicure and entertainment while awaiting for our category.
First announcements were 2018 contribution to Profile. Huge congratulations to The Club Melbourne Ambassador Program winning in the corporation category and MPavilion, winning in the community organisation category. Then, community contribution by a corporation which was awarded to In Harmony with Health, music therapy service at the Royal Hospital.
We cross our fingers as the nominees appeared and then we won! A very surprised Maria (our general manager), with no speech prepared, walked to the stage to collect the award in front of all these amazing Melburnians. What a night! We are so thankful to the City of Melbourne as Laneway Learning is as Melburnian as you can get. We even have ‘laneway’ on our name! But also because we truly believe in creating a community of avid learners and teachers in the heart of this city and have been doing so for 6 years now.
However, Laneway is you guys – our community: attendees, teachers, volunteers, venues, board and staff… this award is definitely yours. Thank you to all our venues who believed in us and allowed us to host “fun classes” without issues, thank you to every attendee that saw the potential to learn, meet, enjoy after work with like-minded people, thank you to our wonderful staff and vollies past and present and thank you to all our teachers who are passionate about sharing their skills.
Other winners were: Chin Communications as contribution to multiculturalism by a corporation and Water Well Project by a community organisation. The Melbourne Cricket Ground won for their contribution to sustainability.
The Awards part of the night ended with the announcement of 2018 Melburnians of the year, Simone & Ian Carson of Second Bite. We love this organisation and their work so much… We were so thrilled to even be in the same space but their speech about food wastage and access to nutritious food by a noticeable percentage of the Australian population was on point. Then, Ian mentioned Laneway Learning in his speech! We had actual tears in our eyes…
What a night, guys, what a night…
See more information about all winners here.
