Recognising our community’s heroes

THE winners are in! The inaugural AJN Community Hero of the Year Award has been won by Jack Klarnet in NSW and Shaun Aisen in Victoria.

Klarnet, nominated by his son Daniel after donating his kidney to Daniel’s father-in-law, Reuven, received 3467 votes out of the more than 30,000 votes cast.

“I’m thrilled, this is a great honour,” he said upon hearing the news. “My son entered me in and only told me after the competition had started.”
Klarnet made the decision to donate one of his kidneys to Reuven after seeing him struggling to play with their grandchild.

“I did not do this to gain recognition for myself but to help Reuven,” Klarnet said. “Since the operation, I am trying to publicise the fact that it is possible to donate to a non-matching recipient.”

Across the border, pilot Shaun Aisen has flown more than 350 angel flights to transport sick Australians living in rural areas to hospitals in Melbourne. Nominated by his step-mum Gina Sabto, Aisen received more than 10,000 votes, just edging out Victorian stem-cell donor Esther Ciechanowski, who received more than 9500.

“It is lovely to be individually recognised for my contribution to the community,” Aisen said. “Like most of the people nominated here, I truly believe that we give our time to simply make a difference and add value to other people’s lives who need this support. To have 10 people who have been recognised for doing just that is truly special.”

AJN national editor Zeddy Lawrence agreed. “We only have two trophies and Jack and Shaun are certainly worthy winners who deserve our praise. But there’s no denying that all those nominated are community heroes.”

Alongside Ciechanowski, the runners-up were Ellis Janks, Janise Einfeld, Jacob Weinmann, Alice Tiomkin, Hayley Sher, Dianne Gaddin and Maurice Zamel.

The awards were run in conjunction with the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Jewish Community Council of Victoria.

AJN STAFF

Caption: NSW winner Jack Klarnet.