I won the award!

Last night was the gala dinner for the Young Achiever Awards and I was excited to hear all about the different projects that the young people at the awards were involved with.

I was a finalist in the Community Service Category and I arrived early to meet the sponsor for the award and the other finalists. As it turned out, I only got a chance to meet one of the other two finalists initially, a young man called Lars. Lars and I started to superficially chit chat until I asked him what he did. When he told me he had started an orphanage in Nepal, I thought, "Wow, congratulations on you efforts! (and you must be delighted to know that you have won the award tonight!)".

Later in the night, the sponsor for my category (Cartridge World) expressed how they had chosen their winner. They looked for someone who reached a number of people in a diverse range of projects, who had an ongoing impact and who had given up a lot in order to benifit many. They said that the one factor that distinguished the category winner from the other candidates was how the individual lived their day-to-day lives.

I was selected to be the winner of the 2007 Young Achiever Award for Community Service.

I am stoked that all the volunteering, representation, lobbying, fundraising, marketing and action that I have contributed into all the different organisations over the years has been acknowledged and I am definately inspired to further "WhyCantWeGetMarried . com", my new project aimed at promoting tollerance and acceptance for inter-religious, inter-racial and gay couples world wide.

Thank you to everyone who inspires, challenges and supports me in these and other endeavours.

Woot!

k