Evening to celebrate local sporting clubs

Published on 13 February 2025

Representatives from sporting clubs based in the Gannawarra Shire are invited to a free dinner occurring next month that will enable those in attendance to network and gain valuable grant application support.

Occurring at the Koondrook Recreation Reserve on Tuesday, 25 March from 6pm, the Gannawarra Sporting Club Dinner will assist clubs in developing successful grant applications and mark the launch of the Gannawarra Fair Access Policy.

“Our community sporting clubs play an important role in connecting residents, not only during competition but also away from the field, green or court, as we saw during the 2022 floods,” Gannawarra Shire Council Chief Executive Officer, Geoff Rollinson said.

Hosted by television host, sports presenter, vocalist and passionate fair access ambassador, Brihony Dawson, the evening will feature a keynote presentation on practical and proactive advice for successful grant applications from ‘The Grants Guy’, Keith Whelan.

The event will also mark the official launch of the Gannawarra Fair Access Policy. Adopted in August 2024, the policy will guide Council’s commitment to reduce the barriers women, girls and people of all cultures and socio-economic demographics experience in accessing community sports.

A panel of industry professionals will also feature in a question-and-answer session about all things sport and recreation, grant funding and club support.

“It is not every day that sporting clubs have access to resources such as Brihony, The Grants Guy and the question-and-answer panel participants, so I encourage all sporting clubs to get a group of members together for this special night,” Mr Rollinson said.

Dinner will be provided, with drinks available to purchase at bar prices.

Bookings are essential, which can be done by visiting www.trybooking.com/CYZLL or phoning Council on (03) 5450 9333.

In addition to the keynote presentation at the Sports Dinner event, The Grants Guys will be hosting a range of long-form workshops which will delve deeper into grant sourcing, grant writing, project delivery and reporting. Residents can select the town that best suits them and register via https://shorturl.at/gAi1P

The Gannawarra Sporting Club Dinner is supported by Victorian and Commonwealth Governments under the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) as part of the Gannawarra Community Flood Recovery Program.