By Charlene Gatt
MARIBYRNONG Mayor Sarah Carter and former Citizen of the Year Wally Hopkins were the cream of the crop at the recent Victoria University Alumni Awards.
Cr Carter, who completed a Bachelor of Communications (Public Relations) in 2006, took out the Young Achiever Alumni Award.
Cr Carter was elected to Maribyrnong City Council in 2008 and became the youngest woman to become mayor when she was elected last year.
In her role, she has developed creative partnerships, particularly around issues of good governance and sustainable planning.
She is also on the boards of LeadWest, Western Melbourne Tourism, and several other organisations.
Mr Hopkins, 87, won the honorary Lifetime Alumni Service Award.
Mr Hopkins completed an engineering apprenticeship at VU’s predecessor institute, Footscray Technical School, in 1939.
He has organised annual class reunions since 1988 when a group met to mark their 50th anniversary at the school.
Mr Hopkins also has a remarkable 75-year involvement with the First Footscray Scout Troop, receiving the Silver Kangaroo – the highest award in Australian Scouting.
For his community service, he received a Medal of the Order of Australia, and was named a Maribyrnong Citizen of the Year.
Mr Hopkins said the award was great and unexpected.
“Today’s university is sophisticated and academic to a great extent and at the presentation I felt a little out of the picture because of all the other folk that were nominated and the academic qualifications they had and their employment, and I was just a student at the Footscray Tech in 1938 and 1939,” he said.
