Canberra (03 February 2020) – Filipina-Australian Elvira Tolentino was named Darwin City Citizen of the Year 2020 by the Darwin City Council, citing her outstanding community work in the Northern Territory, Australia

She was chosen from among seven finalists and was honoured during the Australia Day Celebration organized by Darwin City Council on 26 January 2020.

Ms. Tolentino’s advocacy for sports, basketball in particular, has been evident since 2012, when she started to organize two-season basketball competitions yearly at the Marrara Basketball Stadium, every Sunday for 10 months.

She currently serves as the President of the Filipino Basketball League of the Northern Territory. Her passion helped bring together new Filipino settlers in the Northern Territory from 2017 to present through sports friendly basketball competition among the youth and adults.

She also engages the basketball team in various competitions at the Filipino National Sports in Perth, Sydney, Adelaide and Singapore. She once hosted the Philippine National Sports Group from southern cities in Darwin and also the Solar Team from De La Salle College, among others.

Aside from sports, Ms. Elvira also played an admirable role in the dispatch of donations of goods to the Philippines during the Typhoon Yolanda that destroyed Tacloban, Leyte. END