By Victoria Stone-meadows
THE 2016 Casey Young Volunteer of the Year award was presented to an 18-year-old Narre Warren resident for his volunteer work through the Narre Warren Community Centre.
Jery Burniston was still 17 when he was presented with the award but has approached his volunteer work with the maturity of someone much older.
He has been involved in three volunteer groups and orchestrated many activities to improve the lives of young people in the Casey area.
A member of the Casey Youth Action Committee, Mr Burniston has overseen events like the Casey Colour Run.
He has worked tirelessly with the Action Committee to bring young people in the area together and improve their lives though activities that promote leadership and skill building.
Mr Burniston has also worked with the Casey and Dandenong branches of Unite Alliance that aims to improve the lives of LGBTIQ youth.
“My main job was to promote (Unite Alliance) more and try to make people see it in a different light, rather than just being gay,” he said.
“It is all about opening hetro people’s experiences of LGBTIQ communities to gain valuable understanding.”
Mr Burniston is also a mentor for the youth program Man Cave that offers positive male role models to young men in the Casey region.
Casey council presented awards to many volunteers at a ceremony in January this year and Mr Burniston said he was honoured to win young volunteer of the year.
“It was unbelievable, I always had that little bit of me saying I was going to win it, but overall I was humble about the whole thing,” he said.
“I know a few of the other nominees and I thought I’m not going to win this so when they announced me as the winner I was gobsmacked.”
Mr Burniston said the award is great and he would continue to volunteer even if he didn’t win.
“It’s the normal stuff I do,” he said.
“I just wanted to hang out with likeminded people and I just kept that ball rolling and kept doing really great stuff.
“It does feel fantastic to have my work recognised.”
