Pair clean up fundraising awards

DYNAMIC fundraising duo Courtney and Rochelle Baker have been honoured in the Tidy Towns awards.
The Caldermeade pair won the Young Leaders Award for their amazing work on behalf of the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday appeal and other community works.
The teenagers’ success was the standout result for Lang Lang which had entered several categories in the annual Tidy Town awards presented by Keep Australia Beautiful Victoria.
Joy Adderley, who spearheaded Lang Lang’s bid, was disappointed the town had not enjoyed more success but said she was very happy to see the Bakers receive recognition which she said was richly deserved.
“It is fantastic for them, they are a great couple of kids,” she said.
Rochelle said she was ‘stoked’ to win.
The South Gippsland town of Loch was the big star of the awards which were announced last week.
Loch won five of the nine categories on offer, including the title of southeast sustainable community winner.
Ms Adderley and her hardworking team of volunteers were satisfied they had done their best and said the experience would stand them in good stead for future entries in the statewide competition.
“We were a bit disappointed, we thought we might have done a little bit better but there is no doubt Lang Lang is better overall for the experience,” Ms Adderley said.
“You don’t really go into this to earn accolades, we have so many good volunteers who love living in this town.
“We don’t need a certificate to say we’re the best, we know how lucky we are. We’ll continue to work for this wonderful little town.”
KABV judges praised the high standards of a number of community projects in the region including tree planting works at Lang Lang.
KABV chief executive officer Andrew McLorinan said the Bakers and other regional winners were leading examples of how people working together could achieve great benefits.