Maree Yapp has been named our shire's Citizen of the Year for her volunteer work supporting young families, championing the arts and environment.
Accepting the award at a gala dinner at Forbes Town Hall on Saturday, January 25, Maree said she had followed her parents' example in becoming involved in her community from a young age.
Maree is well known to many through her work as Schools as Community facilitator at Forbes North, but her passion and dedication takes her commitments far beyond work.
Maree was a member of the P and C at the school for more than 20 years - long after her own children had finished there.
She started the Birth to Kinder program at the school, supporting reading, talking, singing and listening for children from birth, and providing a free book to all babies born in Forbes.
Latest Stories
The annual reading day with all its literacy-based activities and fun is a highlight of the year, and Maree has also volunteered for story time and rhyme time at the library.
In the past couple of years, Maree has worked with a new committee to bring back the Galari Lachlan River Arts Festival after a five-year hiatus, providing arts and music opportunities for families in and beyond Forbes.
Maree served as president for that first festival in 2024 and has this year taken the role of secretary with Monica Wren stepping into the president's role.
The festival had live entertainment from local and regional bands, art workshops, choir workshops, and of course the opportunity to be part of the stunning lantern parade.
"I was I guess inspired by a lot of media around trauma-impacted communities and their roads to recovery," Maree said.
"It was like a repeating theme that creatives were a pathway to building resilience and rebuilding communities."
In relaunching the festival, Maree was passionate about ensuring people could derive at least some of their income from their creative pursuits.
Artists and performers had been so impacted by COVID-19 and associated lockdowns, it was important to the committee they pay each creative taking part in the festival at least something - although they did kindly have people donate their time.
One of the amazing aspects of the festival was how families and community members came and went through the day, enjoying the markets, the performances and the free activities.
The Wellbeing Hub, popular throughout the day, gave an opportunity for people to take part in yoga and other therapies.
As they make plans for River Arts for the future, there are definitely opportunities to be part of things like a community choir and drumming group - reach out through social media if you're interested.
With another passion for the local environment and being in nature, Maree is an active volunteer with Central West Lachlan Landcare currently serving as its treasurer.
Maree joined 10 or 11 years ago when she found herself in a position to give back to community - and Landcare was a great cause.
The organisation has a focus on healthy rural communities from an environmental perspective, but has also had significant focus and work on rural resilience and mental health.
They played a significant role in the Rural Women's Gathering in Forbes a couple of years ago.
"One of my favorite things each year is Eco Schools day, I actually take a day off work every year to go and volunteer for Landcare and help out," Maree said.
"Homegrown Parkes has been amazing too."
Maree is inspired by her belief in the uniqueness and potential of every person.
"I have a few little rules that I try to live my life by and one of my rules is to believe in the positive potential of every individual," Maree said.
"It is about recognising that everyone in our community has something to offer to our community to make it a better place."
She also shared her new year's resolution for this year, which she hoped others could take something from.
"I needed a cracker that I couldn't fail at. So I decided to do less," she said.
"Now, that doesn't mean less for our community or to be less passionate about anything we do, but it's to do less things like that we don't need: less worrying, less stress and less anxiety.
"Doing less of the unhelpful things, letting them go, will free up time to do more of the things I enjoy.
"Imagine if we all did a little less, imagine what we could achieve together for our community."
Maree added Landcare and Galari River Arts are among the organisations that would very much welcome new volunteers: you can learn more and connect with them through social media.
In accepting the award, Maree recognised the achievements of all nominees as well as our shire councillors for their contributions to our community.
Councillors are not eligible for nomination for these awards, but Maree pointed out they attend many meetings and events to support community groups and involvement.
"After reading about all the other nominees and the wonderful achievements I did not think there was any chance my name would be read out as the Forbes citizen of the year," she said.
"The strengths and vision of each of the nominees, and their determination to advocate for others is inspiring as it is awesome.
"The Senior Citizen of the Year nominees have contributed significantly to the many and varied institutions in our community and make our town a place we are all proud to call home.
"With such a strong field of nominees for the Youth of the Year one cannot help but to feel optimistic about our future, nestled on the river in our alluring rural setting."
0 comment
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Read and post comments with a
digital subscription.