As announced at the Driscoll Medal Vote Count & Dinner on Friday night, the SUANFC Junior Club Volunteer of the Year Award will now be be named after Jan Ramus.
After countless hours of volunteer work and service within the Sydney AFL landscape, Jan’s impact on junior football in Sydney’s inner-west is something to behold.
Former SUANFC player and close friend of Jan, Rod ‘Rocket’ Gillett penned this fitting tribute.
“Jan Ramus has done it all in junior football, from washing the jumpers to running the canteen to coaching the kids. She was the driving force behind the Wilkins Public School having a team in the Paul Kelly Cup from its inception in the late 90s to her retirement at the end of the last year. Together with her late husband and Sydney Uni legend Peter Ramus they revitalised junior football in the inner west, particularly at the Western Suburbs club. A long-time supporter of our football club, we are honoured to name this award in recognition of her magnificent contribution to junior football.”
SUANFC as whole is extremely grateful for Jan’s influence on our own club and the foundation her work laid for our junior-club affiliates.
This year’s recipient was Glebe Greyhound’s Kirsty Bass.
Kirsty has been Auskick Coordinator for the past five years at Glebe during a period and significant growth in the club, particularly Auskick numbers which went from 116 to 172 in the period.
Instrumental in coordinating the girls Auskick program, Kirsty started an eight week program this year attracting a full team, many of whom weren’t playing footy prior to the program starting.
More recently Kirsty has coordinated half time Auskick at the SCG and she has just coordinated halftime girls Auskick for the Swans Vs Crows final- a big occasion.
Kirsty makes a regular and significant contributor to the Glebe committee meetings, taking on many jobs additional to her role, and this year was no exception. In the absence of a graphic designer to produce the year book this year Kirsty not only canvassed the parents to find one, she collected all season reports, player profiles, awards and photo’s for every team in every age group (27 teams) as well as a grand final report, life membership profiles, milestones and stats, so many stats, without being asked and without complaint to people outside her family.