12 months flew by and once again it was time for the National Disability Support Awards 2018! This event is always a highlight of the year for Directions as it is a wonderful opportunity to showcase and celebrate some of our truly amazing support workers, and honour the for the remarkable support that they give to our families.
This year was no exception. As an organisation, we submitted 5 nominations, all in different categories, highlighting the breadth and variety of the support that we offer here at Directions. We nominated both individual support workers, as well as some of our fabulous groups!
The individual support workers nominated were Samantha Warne, Samuel James and Heath Saunders, who was nominated by one of our families for his exceptional support in a very difficult time.
We also were honoured to be able to nominate two of our ever growing groups, the Claremont Tigers and Teenspirit, both of which have been immensely popular and providing opportunities for some of young adults to socialise, gain some skills and have some fun!
The Awards night is always a spectacular one, held in the Grand Ballroom at Crown Casino, with a 3 course meal and entertainment, which this year included a fire breathing bagpiper! I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it before!
The evening was a wonderful celebration of successes, with two of our nominees being finalists! There are over 300 nominations this year so this is remarkable achievement! Sam Warne and Heath Saunders were finalist sin their categories and we could not be prouder of them.
The night hit a high when Sam Warne won the Excellence in Rights and Advocacy award! She was nominated for the amazing work she does with the Garrett family and she has written a children’s book promoting equal rights an treatment of kids with disabilities. Her message is so powerful; Being born different does not mean you are born wrong.” Her speech was incredibly moving and she even managed to get 900 people playing Marco Polo!
The night was a wonderful celebration of the amazing people that we are lucky enough to work with and the beautiful families that we are honoured to support. We were partying with the resident DJ until the early hours and the night was a roaring success! Roll on National Disability Support Awards 2019!
