Kilsyth Basketball’s Jan McMenamin has been nominated for the Maroondah City Council Citizen of the Year Award for 2017.

Jan was nominated as part of the Council’s 2018 Australia Day Awards, which honoured the outstanding contributions from its citizens within the local community over the past year. Jan’s nomination stems from her contributions to ‘Girls Guides,’ an organisation which aims to empower girls and women while encouraging and supporting them to discover, plan and connect with their community to make a difference.

A Guide herself within the Maroondah region for the past 30 years, Jan is an ambassador for the Blackburn Bursary, a fund within Girl Guides that supports families to pay membership fees, and is also part of a team that maintains the quality of the Britannia Park Campsite in Yarra Junction.

Jan has also been a valued contributor to the Kilsyth Basketball community for many years, with her service spanning several decades through numerous capacities. Her daughters, Claire, Erica and Allison, have strong ties with Kilsyth, with Claire set to lead the VYC Women’s team as head coach for the 2018 season, while Erica was a 200 game SEABL player and championship winner with the Lady Cobras in the mid-2000’s. The Kilsyth Sports Centre’s show court is named after Jan’s late husband, Hugh.

Jan’s passion for Kilsyth Basketball is evident by the significant contributions she has made to the Cobras NWBL and WNWBL programs in recent years. Her generous support as a ‘Business, Families and Friends’ partner has allowed some of Victoria’s top athletes with a disability to play under the Kilsyth Basketball banner and compete in Australia’s premier wheelchair basketball league.

Kilsyth Basketball would like to congratulate Jan on her nomination and thank her for her continued support of our association.