Marcoola SLSC has been awarded Surf Life Saving Queensland’s (SLSQ), Club of the Year for the 20/21 season and with this win the next stop will be taking out the national award as the best club in Australia at the awards on November 6, until then the club is revelling in being named Sunshine Coast Club of the Year and now Queensland Club of the Year.
The award was presented virtually on Saturday night during the 2021 Awards of Excellence presentation and due to Covid-19 restrictions, the clubs across the state were encouraged to hold ‘watch parties’ at their club.
Drew Palmer, Marcoola SLSC General Manager was delighted that the club has been recognised with this award after a challenging past 12 months.
“This is fantastic recognition for our club that is striving to achieve great things both on and off the beach for the Marcoola Community,” Mr Palmer said.
“This award is great recognition for how we became the local community hub during the Covid-19 restrictions throughout last season. Defying current trends, our membership numbers continued to grow across all classes of membership, including 16 per cent growth in our Nippers ranks.”
“We’ve built our overall strategy on supporting our new and existing members, along with strong financial management and sound governance practices. This award covers all bases and recognises that we’re heading in the right direction.”
The Marcoola Surf Life Saving Club has grown considerably over the past two years with over 180 active surf life-saving volunteers and 250 nippers. The club was also recently awarded the Buhk Wilkes Lifesaving Excellence Award, Youth Spirit Award and U15 Lifesaver of the Year award at the Sunshine Coast Branch awards.
Junior Activities Director Amanda Janssen said that winning the award was very exciting.
“There was a real buzz here on Saturday night as we watched on the big screen.
“What we have achieved has paid off and we have worked hard and as a result we will go on to see if we can take out the national title on November 6- fingers and toes crossed for that.”