Annika Dukes has been named our Young Citizen of the Year at Forbes shire's 2025 Australia Day celebrations.

Annika has been volunteering in our community from sporting to community organisations for years, with four years with Forbes Youth Action Team through to helping with the elephants at Taronga zoo.

Joining a basketball team led her to join the committee, and she put her hand up to join the committee of Forbes Hockey Inc as soon as she was old enough.

Annika joined the team at our local pharmacy after graduating from high school in 2022 and is working as a dispensary technician, looking to study pharmacy in the future.

One of the great volunteer roles she's held was working at Dubbo's Taronga Western Plains Zoo.

Annika learned about the youth volunteering program on an excursion from school - and was very happy to be accepted.

"You start working in the cafes and bike shed and once you have a certain amount of hours you can go and be with a zoo keeper for the day," she explained.

Annika got to work with the elephants - and loved it - for the three years she made the trip to Dubbo to volunteer.

Alongside a zoo keeper from 7am to 3pm, she got to be part of their routine - both the fun and the serious work of health checks.

They'd run a regular routine of checking the elephants every morning, and weigh them every morning as well to make sure they're healthy.

"Just their personalities," Annika said of what she loved about them.

"They're so much like humans, you could kick a soccer ball with them."

Taronga has youth and adult volunteer program, all supporting the organisation's critical conservation work.

The zoo has active involvement in breed and release programs, habitat recovery and the rehabilitation and release of injured or orphaned wildlife.

Annika has followed her family example in giving her time to support her community - stepping in as assistant steward for photography at the show to help her sister is another example - and she'd highly recommend it.

"Put your hand up if you can help, it's great to give back to the community and keep things running," she said.

If you're looking for a sport, hockey will be on through the winter from Term 2.