THE creators of an event which rallied hundreds of people in memory of those who died on Black Saturday have been recognised at the CFA Fire Awareness Awards.
The awards were held at the RACV Club in Melbourne on 3 December.
Stacey and Troy Kinsmore from Slammed Creations, along with Stacey’s sister Wendy Bennett, organised the Black Saturday Remembrance Cruise in memory of their friend Kate Fisher who died with her fiance Steve Fisher in Toolangi, and all who died on 7 February 2009.
The cruise of more than 400 cars and 100 motorbikes took place on 7 February this year, travelling through the fire-affected communities of Yarra Glen, Toolangi and Chum Creek and finishing at Healesville railway station where tributes were read and tears shed.
It was an emotional journey on the day, with the cars with their headlights on and people standing by the roadside in silent tribute.
The event also raised $10,000 for the Healesville CFA.
Slammed Creations was nominated in the Community Recovery category which recognises projects that focus on dealing with the physical and emotional trauma of fire-related disasters.
They won the Community Recovery award and were named overall award winners on the night, taking out the RACV Insurance Award for Excellence. That award is given to a project that stands out as making a particularly significant and innovative contribution to promotion to promoting fire awareness in the community.
Slammed Creations also received one of three special incentive grants of $2000 awarded to developing projects.
Stacey said it was a night of mixed emotions with the excitement of having their efforts recognised but also the sadness they still felt for the loss of their friend Kate.
She said winning the initial award was a surprise but to then win the overall award was totally unexpected.
She said a number of people, including one of the judges, came up to congratulate them and to let them know that they thought it was a great thing they were doing.
“We’re completely overwhelmed that people recognised what we did,” Stacey said.
“We had people coming up to me in tears thanking us for running the event.
“It’s nice to know the event meant so much to people, as it did to us.”
Plans are already underway for the 2012 event which will be held on Saturday 2 February.
Stacey, Troy and Wendy believe that as well as paying tribute to Kate, there is still a lot of suffering which the annual cruise event can help recognise.
She said they also wanted to use the event to continue to promote fire awareness.
