Young Citizen of the Year Award recipients Melissa Macpherson and Sarah Smith with children Chloe, Natalia and Jordan.By Monique Ebrington
HEALESVILLE’S Melissa Macpherson and Sarah Smith were both honoured for their contribution to the community at the Australia Day Awards on Monday.
Not only did they share the Young Citizen of the Year Award from the Shire of Yarra Ranges but they shared a special bond as young mothers.
Melissa and Sarah bumped into each other in a hospital waiting room when they were both pregnant.
While they both fell pregnant in Year 12 and both attended Lilydale Heights Secondary College, it wasn’t until they shared the same situation that they truly became friends.
Through their experiences as young mothers, the 20-year-olds have used their personal experience to help develop the shire’s Hey Babe information resource for young mothers.
The pair work every two to three weeks in consultation with Hey Babe to make the information provider user friendly for young mothers.
They say that they are happy to give young mothers a lot of the information and advice they missed out on during their pregnancies.
“We shared our experiences as young mums and just the things we didn’t know or the things we missed out on,” Sarah said.
“We wanted to make sure that it all included the things we didn’t get told, didn’t know or were too scared to ask male doctors about.”
While they were helping other mothers through Hey Babe the pair say that it also helped them.
They said that the shire’s youth programs and events organiser Belinda Chalmers met the girls through their playgroup and helped them out.
“We both really want to thank her for all of the opportunities she’s given us over the years, and particularly the opportunity to work as part of Hey Babe,” Melissa Macpherson said.
“Without her I wouldn’t have a job as peer support leader for young mums. She helped us to open up so many doors and gave us lots of opportunities. She was always offering to help in any way.”
The pair were excited to have their families at the presentation of the Young Citizen of the Yarra Award, including Melissa’s daughters, three-year-old Natalia and eight-and-half-month-old Chloe and Sarah’s three-year-old son Jordan.
