Jordan Springs resident Kristine Gauci has been named as the Citizen of the Year in Penrith City Council’s inaugural Local Celebration Awards.

Kristine is the Co-Founder and Chair of Our Community Cares, a local charity based in Penrith.

She was nominated by her daughter Samantha Jarnet for the Award. Samantha volunteers in the charity along with her husband and four children.

“The Citizen of the Year Award from Penrith City Council affords our charity more credibility in the eyes of the public. It also gives the volunteers of Our Community Cares a share in a huge thank you for a job well done” said Kristine to the Jordan Springs Gazette.

Our Community Cares was founded by Kristine and Melissa Spurrier in 2013. The charity provides several different services to the local community. Pre-COVID, this included taking high school students to aged care facilities to visit the elderly, providing gifts to aged residents, and those in facilities that have nobody visiting them for Christmas.

“Over the years, we have purchased chemotherapy chairs for the Nepean Cancer Care Centre to ensure the patients could undertake treatment in comfort, three stem cell chairs for the Cancer Ward at the Nepean Hospital, three lowline beds for the Aged Ward, upgraded the Dementia Ward into a Sensory Ward, purchased personal fans for

Cancer patients at the NCCC and a music library and players for the NCCC.

“The charity donates large volumes of food, when the need arises, to local kitchens that feed the homeless and vulnerable. We have started to make lunches for the kids at a local high school that go without lunch every day and help at the CBD in putting together hampers for families during COVID. Our latest program will have volunteers visiting needy aged and ill people’s homes and doing small jobs for them – our Tool Belt Program” she explained.

“People in Penrith give back to the community and take pride in helping others where they can. It’s heart-warming to be part of that mentality” Kristine ended.