JOHN Forbes says he is humbled to be the recipient of an award named in honour of legendary broadcaster Tony Charlton.
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Forbes was recently announced as the latest winner of the 41 Club’s Tony Charlton Community Service Award.
The award “recognises an outstanding Victorian who, like Tony Charlton, has made a significant and sustained contribution to the community through a commitment to community service.”
Forbes earned the award for his tireless fundraising efforts as a founding member of the Blue Ribbon Foundation, which is this year celebrating its 30th anniversary.
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The Blue Ribbon Foundation perpetuates the memory of members of Victoria Police killed in the line of duty, with its first event a basketball game organised by Forbes – the former national promotions manager at Puma – to raise money for the families of Constables Steven Tynan and Damien Eyre, who were killed in the Walsh Street shootings in 1988.
“It was originally supposed to be just one basketball game… we got the Australian team to the Glasshouse to play the Puma All-Stars and we made $88,000 that night for the families,” Forbes recalled this week.
“We’ve since raised 15 to 16 million dollars over the past 30 years. Bendigo has been very good to the Blue Ribbon Foundation with a branch here and we’ve always had great support.”
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Forbes is the sixth recipient of the Tony Charlton Community Service Award, joining David Mann (2013), Glenn Ridge (2014), Salvation Army Major Brendan Nottle (2015), Neil Mitchell (2016) and Neil Roberts (2017) on the honour roll.
Forbes was presented the award by Ian Cover of the Coodabeen Champions.
“For inspiration I turned to the book Forbesy: The John Forbes Story and I noted that Forbesy writes in the book about Tony Charlton, the man who this award honours, and describes Tony as a man for whom he had enormous respect and who was a role model,” Cover said in his speech.
“In turn, a cavalcade of people wrote about Forbesy, recording a swag of tributes in which they all talk about his integrity, compassion, selflessness and care for others.
“He is a man we are inspired by; a man whom we should seek to emulate; a man we all admire, respect and love.”
The 41 Club was formed in 1974 and Forbes has been a member since 1987.
“To receive an honour named after Tony Charlton is unbelievable… he did so much for the community and I nearly fell off my chair when I found out about it,” Forbes said.
“It’s a tremendous honour.”