Collie local, Michael Cain has been nominated for the RAC Volunteering Award in the 2017 Western Australian Regional Achievement and Community Awards.
The dedicated volunteer spends four nights a week at the Roche Park boxing gym training Collie’s youth, as well as helping out with his own children’s sporting commitments.
Mr Cain said he was surprised and overwhelmed when he found out he had been nominated for the volunteering award. “It certainly is a very big surprise, it’s a bit of a shock,” he said.
“When I first started in 1996, it’s just been something I have done ever since, I don’t second guess what I am doing, it’s part of my routine in life.”
Mr Cain said it’s not just about the boxing, it’s about helping the youth who come to the club who may have other things going on in their lives and use boxing as an outlet.
“You look at the kids in the community, and I have been around boxing for a while now, the up and coming kids they turn up at boxing for a reason, sometimes you know the reason and sometimes you don’t,” he said.
“You're a coach, you're a mentor, you're a friend.”
“It’s a youth club so it’s not always about boxing, it’s about the youth in the community coming along and they just want to do something for themselves.
“They make friends, they get fit and they love it. For me it’s a little bit like a family.”
Since 1993, Mr Cain has been involved with Collie’s boxing community and he received his first coaching award in 1996 whilst competing with the Collie PCYC.
The dedicated volunteer has been a volunteer boxing coach with PCYC and Roche park community youth clubs since 2005. Mr Cain holds both amateur and professional boxing licenses, and in his coaching role he spends four nights a week plus many Saturday’s travelling and transporting competitors to various parts of the state to compete. Mr Cain does all this whilst running his own mechanical business.
Good friend and fellow boxing coach, Tommy Greenwood said Mr Cain is well deserving of the award.
Mr Greenwood said there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that people don’t see, such as Mr Cain’s fundraising efforts which have helped to keep the boxing gym running for as long as they have.
Finalists will be presented and winners announced at a Gala Presentation Dinner on Friday October, 20, 2017. For more information go to www.awardsaustralia.com/waraca.
Do you know a local volunteer who deserves recognition?
Email shannon.wood@fairfaxmedia.com.au
