Canterbury wins at community awards night

Canterbury League Club has won an award in the Disability, Welfare & Social Inclusion category at the recent 2019 Clubs & Community Awards in recognition of a cooking class program for people with intellectual disabilities.

Led by Canterbury Executive Chef Stephanie Azar, the special cooking classes have run in conjunction with participants from local social services organisation, Participate Australia (PA) for the past two years. In each six-week program, students learned basic kitchen skills, knife skills and simple recipes that they can cook themselves at home like pasta bake, noodle salad, mash, stir-fries and pizzas.

PA provides a range of services and works with people with disabilities to help them develop the skills to lead them to greater independence.

The awards night, hosted by 2GB journalist and presenter Ben Fordham, saw clubs from as far as Tweed Heads, Gunnedah and Deniliquin attend. It was a glittering affair for the 1000 attendees who came together to celebrate all the good work that clubs in the community do and a chance for everyone to dress up and let their hair down.

“It is a great honour to receive this award and my gratitude and thanks to everyone who was involved in getting this project running. I enjoy doing the classes because I see the worth in what it means to the participants and it gives me a sense of gratitude knowing I am teaching them simple life skills that most of us take advantage of in our lives,” said Stephanie.

“Seeing the growth in confidence and satisfaction in the participants makes me really proud to be a part of their journey.”