The Victorian Community Achievement Awards has officially finished the statewide search for community contributors and a couple from Toorloo Arm has been nominated.
Stan and Ann Barker have been nominated for the Community Hero Award which acknowledges those making a significant contribution at a local level in regional and rural Victoria. It acknowledges those everyday people doing extraordinary things within their local communities and have demonstrated leadership in trying times.
After the bushfires of 2019/20 Stan and Ann with the help of East Gippsland Native Plants Society and Lakes Entrance Garden Club set about propagating and growing thousands of native plants for bushfire victims.
So many people in the area were left without any garden at all and as keen gardeners they knew the healing power of a garden.
Over the past 18 months they have distributed plants to people affected by bushfires in Mallacoota, Goongerah, Buchan, Bruthen and Sarsfield.

IMAGE: Stan and Ann Barker left with Arja Toivanen, Yrjo Torkkola, Shirley Bardwell and Elise Walker preparing a load of plants in March 2021 to deliver to Cann River and Mallacoota after the 2020/21 bushfires. (PS)