In December, TBBCT Manager Phil Barron and North Coast Medicare Local CEO Vahid Saberi signed an MOU to work together to assist NCML’s Chronic Care Program patients to their medical appointments. Aunty Bertha Kapeen attended the signing ceremony and welcomed us all to Bundjalung country.

On Tuesday 3 December, TBBCT were the recipients of Tweed Shire’s inaugural Access and Inclusion Award, presented at the International Day of People with Disabilities gala event at Tweed Heads Civic Centre. TBBCT were nominated by our service users for excellence in service provision, enabling more people to access the community by providing a fleet of Community Cars and Wheelchair access vehicles.  We were presented with a finalist’s trophy, and a beautiful handcrafted perpetual trophy, which is on display at our South Tweed office. We also received a commendation for providing transport enabling more sport and leisure options for community members. These awards  highlight the fantastic work done by the Tweed drivers and Bus attendants, volunteers and staff.  Your community recognises the importance of your work. Congratulations and thankyou to you all.

Tweed Byron and Ballina Community Transport is proud to announce our Volunteer Kenneth (Ken) Bolt was awarded NSW Volunteer of the year at the NSW Volunteer awards ceremony on 5 December 2013

Ken has worked as a volunteer with Tweed Byron and Ballina Community Transport for more than 10 years, since the inception of our Aboriginal transport program.

Ken’s dedication and commitment to his community; his reliability, as well as his sense of responsibility were major factors in his nomination. He is such a warm and friendly person our passengers are always put at ease in his company. Ken has a great sense of humour, and he is always calm in the face trying circumstances. He puts his client’s first, and nothing seems to faze him.

We calculate Ken has made more than 3,500 trips, driving frail and sick people to their medical destinations and return, (around 150,000 kms) in his own car or in one of TBBCT’s Community cars, and he just keeps on going.

TBBCT has been able to grow its service to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community over the past 10 years largely because of the dedication of volunteers like Ken in our team. TBBCT provided more than 12,000 trips to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people in 2012/13.

Ken’s achievement puts a spotlight on the fantastic job Aboriginal volunteers are doing in our area. We are really very, very proud to have Ken on our team, and over the moon that his service has been recognised  by the judging panel at Volunteering NSW.