Hilltops Councillor Rita O'Connor announced the winners as Pierre Issa the 2020 Harden-Murrumburrah Australia Day ambassador presented the winners with their awards.

The awards recognise some individuals and organisations that have made a considerable contribution to our local community, above and beyond normal employment.

"There are many people who work tirelessly and selflessly for the community and this is just a small way to recognise their input," Mrs O'Connor said.

This year's Town Care Award is in some ways a retrospective award given to a group of people who have served the community over the last 48 years.

This is a local business which opened in September 1971 to stimulate interest in both the town and district in tourism and craftwork.

Since its inception it has been staffed by volunteers.

The business caters largely to visitors and the volunteers who work there are very welcoming and very happy to share their local knowledge.

Kai is a keen all round sportsman who plays touch football, tennis, squash, cricket, swimming and more as well as being a volunteer coach.

Kai is married with four children, is the Essential Energy Harden supervisor, the project manager of the McLean Oval project, the football president and the cricket captain.

For the past three years Kai has organised the local cricket side, the Harden Hornets and helps out with the junior cricket club. He has been president of the Harden-Murrumburrah Junior Rugby League Club for the past six years where he has developed and grown the club. He also successfully secured over $1 million state grant to build a new football amenities facility at McLean Oval and another $140,000 for a garage to house the new food van which was also another state grant.

Kai has given countless hours and time to secure the best possible outcomes for the sporting facilities in Harden.

Grace has excelled at the sport of women's rugby union at both national and international levels while balancing her studies, training and playing rugby while also immersing herself in community engagement and rugby development activities for junior players across the region.

Grace has been the recipient of a series of awards for both sporting and academic excellence and was selected in the first ever First Nations Rugby Sevens Women's squad.

In 2020 Grace will continue training at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in the ACT as part of the Academy of Sport Rugby program.

Grace has been selected as a member of the 2020 Brumbies Super W's squad in the national competition and will be training hard to make final selection in the Australian Wallaroos Women World Cup squad to play in New Zealand in 2021.

Grace is a formidable rugby player, a great ambassador not only for Harden-Murrumburrah and the region but also for her country.

Mr Rendell is a volunteer driver for Flexible Care Services in Harden.

Originally Mr Rendell moved to Harden many years ago as the new owner of the Doncaster Hotel. After selling the hotel in 1990 he drove trucks for local carriers with both local and interstate work.

After retiring he joined Flexible Care Services as a volunteer driver, regularly driving the Flexible Care Services bus to Young every Monday and Wednesday for Community Transport.

Mr Rendell also takes clients in the Service's car to medical appointments in Wagga, Canberra, Cootamundra and Young.

In the last 12 months he clocked up 19,751km of volunteered distance driving over 750 hours. He calls into Flexible Care every day just to see if he can offer any assistance.

Maree Fogg's enthusiasm, dedication to and for music and voluntary work has had her entertaining the elderly, the sick, those in nursing homes and schools around the region for over 40 years.

Maree is always available for whatever charity needs support at any given time and does it for the pleasure people get out of the music and the singing.

In recent times Maree can only play the piano as she lost a finger on her left hand which makes playing the piano accordion quite difficult. However, she found the piano seems to bring back great memories to the oldies who love it.

Linda Barry is a strategic contributor and grassroots volunteer helping tens of thousands of people in need in the Canberra and Goulburn region since 1991.

For the last 28 years Linda has contributed to the St Vincent de Paul Society at both the local and national level.

Linda joined the Society in 1991 becoming vice-president of Harden and the Regional Council between 2001 and 2004. She was the Harden centre manager from 2005 to 2008, the whole centres area manager for ACT, Western Areas and Archdiocesan area manager in 2005.

In this role Linda was responsible for the overall management and running of the 26 shops in the Archdiocese with 54 staff and over 1000 volunteers with an annual income of approximately $5 million.

This was a volunteer position and Linda was reappointed three times between 2005 and 2014.

Linda has acted as a great ambassador to Harden, in 2017 she was awarded the Canberra Region's Senior Volunteer of the Year.