A school leader, theatre performer and NSW State Emergency Service (SES) volunteer, 17-year-old Tori Henderson is Shellharbour City Council's Young Citizen of the Year.
“I’m extremely excited. This wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card,” Tori says, smiling.
“I want to make some real change and use the platform to be a voice for the young citizens of Shellharbour.”
Tori is school captain at Lake Illawarra High School. She spends her spare time volunteering at The Roo Theatre in Shellharbour and with the local SES team.
Tori’s passion for theatre began at The Roo Theatre, where she performs, does set work, mentors younger students and helps in the canteen.
“I’ve always been a performer and loved being on stage,” she says.
“In year five, my mum finally signed me up for the classes there after many years of begging and begging.
“So I did classes there for a little bit and then I got in my first show and never looked back.
"It’s been six years now, and that's my home away from home. I absolutely love that place. I've been in over 20 shows now between Roo and Woods-Ray Theatricals.”
Tori also volunteers at the NSW SES Shellharbour unit, attending muster meetings every week and assisting the team to help the local community.
“I went to an open day with school and got invited to come back and do an internship. It was a 10-week program where we learned all about SES, some hands-on leadership and communication stuff,” Tori says.
“I was awarded the Commander’s Commendation award at the end of that program. So about a year ago, I decided to do SES full-time, because you can sign up to be an SES member from the age of 16.
“I absolutely love it there. I’ve recently done my training to be able to do storm call-out jobs. It’s been heaps of fun and I’ve made lots of new friends.”
Tori thanks her friends and community for the support she has received.
“It takes a village,” Tori says.
“I want to thank my teacher at school who nominated me, and all my other teachers who have mentored me and helped me become the person I am today.
“I want to thank all my mentors at Roo Theatre and SES – Ray, Byron, Tim, and everyone else, I’m not leaving anyone out. My family, my mum is my biggest supporter, as well as my grandpa and my dad.”
Tori will be completing the HSC this year and applying for early entry to universities.
“I definitely want to do something in the acting or community space,” Tori says.
“I’m very excited for the future but also very scared – which is something that I feel a lot of people my age are relating to – it’s pretty daunting looking at the state of the world.”
Tori says young people in Shellharbour could benefit from less judgement and more community support.
“I’d like to use this platform as a voice for the young citizens of Shellharbour because we are often quite misunderstood and we get quite a lot of backlash from the community,” Tori says.
“There are some people who are doing the wrong thing within the community, of course, but how do we turn that around?
“Try to be more understanding, ask more questions. Don’t just make your judgement at first look. It’s easy to make that judgement and it happens within seconds – but when you’re growing up, you’re still figuring out who you are.
"I think we need to be cut some slack, and we need that support from the community.”
