January 26 at Trafalgar Public Hall continues to be a day to celebrate and award outstanding community citizens in our town.
While we have many worthy recipients in our community, such awards can only be given to those who are nominated on the published forms and then selected by a panel of judges. The nominations are discreetly submitted and the winning recipient is informed prior to the award ceremony.
This year, the Citizen of the Year 2026 declined to receive public recognition for their community involvement. We respect that choice and no award was presented on the day.
However, a Youth Citizen of the Year was awarded to Jonah Meredith who recently completed Year 12 following an active three years at Trafalgar High School.
He was both a music captain and school captain during his time at Traf High.
Jonah made a big impact on the school’s music program as it moved from annual music nights to four open-mic nights each year, with four visiting band nights and a larger carnival night. He helped select the bands, both student and external, for these nights, plus assisted with the promotion of, and led the student team working on, these events.
The mic nights let students have a safe place to perform. Previously, residents would have seen ‘freezer’ music events run by local government, but these haven’t occurred in recent years with the funds going to other programs. A business in Warragul was running open-mic nights for students, however, the school has started running them in an environment families are comfortable with, and they can run more regularly at less cost.
Jonah was jointly responsible for successful community bank grants to purchase a range of music, sound and lighting equipment to improve the music events as, not being part of classwork, they are not funded by the education department.
As a school captain, Jonah has been an integral part of all school life. This involves weekly meetings with the school leadership, on-line communications with key staff, and fortnightly staff meetings to represent student views. He chaired Student Representative Council meetings and met with student leadership teams such the STEM Students (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and Performing Arts teams. He also represented the school at Trafalgar’s Anzac Day and Remembrance Day commemorations.
Jonah sat on the School Council from November 2024 and has been part of the Year 12-led Bowel Cancer fundraiser. He also ran several Casual Clothes Day fundraising events for internal needs of the school. Over many years, Jonah was a big part of inclusive activities in the school, such as Wear it Purple, Harmony Day, and IDAHOBIT, the latter being the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia, which is celebrated globally each year on May 17.
Jonah was also actively involved in ensuring student safety due to the many train and bus replacements over the past few years. With an average of three buses for 170 students who would normally take the train, plus those students normally taking buses, the leadership team helped co-ordinate students to ensure they got on the correct bus to their relevant destination.
We congratulate Jonah as the Trafalgar Youth Citizen of the Year 2026 and wish him the best going forward.
Last year, mental health advocates Jason and Kerry Rantall won Traf Citizen of the Year while Ambrose Bajada won the junior award. Nominations will roll around for the award later this year in October. It’s never too early to start thinking about who around you has contributed to the local community and deserves some recognition.
