Australian of the Year: Nick Marshall award as 2020 QLD Local Hero
After years of giving youths in the community equal opportunity, a Gold Coast man was last night recognised in the Queensland Australian of the Year awards in Brisbane.
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AFTER years of giving youths in the community equal opportunity, Gold Coast’s Nick Marshall was last night recognised in the Queensland Australian of the Year awards in Brisbane.
The Adjunct Assistant Professor and musculoskeletal physiotherapist won the 2020 QLD Local Hero.
Mr Marshall founded the Albatross Nippers in 2015 before starting an all-inclusive Nipper program at Nobbys Beach.
The program gave children with special needs the opportunity to experience nippers with other children of the same age.
The program has since expanded to other Gold Coast clubs.
This year, Mr Marshall’s Albatross Nippers became the first group of special needs children to participate in a surf lifesaving carnival and competition.
He liaised with city council to install beach matting and free beach wheelchair access and was instrumental in designing the online Surf Lifesaving Australia special needs module, teaching clubs across Australia to better interact, engage and develop programs at their beach. Motivated solely by the desire to create a better, more engaged community, Nick’s volunteer work inspires the Gold Coast community.
In other awards, educator Rachel Downie, the creator of Stymie, a site where students can anonymously report harm without fear, was named Queensland’s Australian of the Year.
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ALBATROSS NIPPERS MAKE FILM DEBUT PROMOTING INCLUSIVE SURF LIFESAVING ON GOLD COAST
Implemented nationally and internationally, students can use Stymie to report family violence bullying, cyber-bullying, depression, illegal activity, harassment and self-harm.
Tennis world No. 1 Ash Barty has aced Queensland’s Young Australian of the Year.
Barty has become a household name after a stunning 2019 in which she won a maiden grand slam title at Roland Garros and scaled the summit of women’s tennis - only the second Australian WTA singles No. 1 after Evonne Goolagong Cawley. A First Nations woman, Ash serves as the National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia.
Queensland’s Senior Australian of the Year is Peter Dornan AM for his work on prostate cancer.
Originally published as Australian of the Year: Nick Marshall award as 2020 QLD Local Hero
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