A strong involvement with the Mount Gambier/ Berrin community has seen Julian Mattay win the City of Mount Gambier’s 2024 Active Citizenship Award.
Mr Mattay came to Australia as a refugee and settled in Tasmania with his family.
A job transfer saw Mr Mattay move to Mount Gambier/ Berrin in 1984, and in 2006 he was made redundant, leaving plenty of time for volunteer work in the community.
“I work with the Rotary Club, Sunset Community Kitchen, the Flying Doctor Service Support Group, the Ryder Cheshire Foundation and with the Books in Homes program,” he said.
Mr Mattay was integral in beginning the Books in Homes program in Mount Gambier/ Berrin in 2015 and when the Rotary Club of Mount Gambier stopped funding the program in 2019 Mr Mattay began personally sponsoring it.
Since then he has donated more than $16,000 to the program, which provides books to children living in remote, disadvantaged and low socio-economic circumstances, providing 2,504 books to 678 families.
“I have been passionate about books since I was a child. In the words of Billy Connolly, ‘Books are your ticket to the whole world’,” Julian said.
“Reading books takes children away from screens and playing games.
“They can read the books to their parents and their parents can read books to them, it’s a bit of a bonding exercise as well.”
The program is on of Mr Mattay’s great loves and he often goes to schools and kindergartens to read to children and helps pack the books and hand them out to children.
As part of his work with the Rotary Club of Mount Gambier, Mr Mattay coordinated the barbecue fundraiser at the weekly Rotary Community Market for almost 10 years.
Mr Mattay resigned as a member of the club in 2020, but as a Friend of Rotary he often volunteers his time to help with fundraising activities.
He said he was driven by a strong desire to help those in the community who need both moral and material support and provides about $26,000 in donations to the local causes each year.
When told that he was to be awarded the Active Citizenship Award for his ongoing community contributions, Mr Matty was surprised.
“I got my phone out and looked at the calendar, it wasn’t the first of April. Quite frankly I was stunned and shocked to hear that I had received this award,” he said.
