Civic Chambers, Tuam Street, 9th December 2003.
He is the inaugural President and Foundation Trustee of the Shirley District Music School Trust, an organisation created in 2000 to provide instrumental musical tuition to all interested children across eight state school communities in the Shirley area. From 1989 to 2001 he was a member of the Shirley Intermediate School Board of Trustees, serving as Chairman for the first ten years. From 1987 to 1989 he was Chairman of the Shirley Intermediate School Council, a wholly voluntary service dedicated to the raising of funds for the school as well as consultancy duties. He is a Past President of the Shirley – Papanui Working Men’s Club, and was the inaugural President of the Peninsula and Plains Orienteering Club for the first four years of its existence. He has for many years been involved with the Scouting Movement, was an office-holder for the Shirley Junior Soccer Club for some years and has been actively involved with a host of other community based groups and activities too numerous to catalogue. His outstanding leadership skills and strong sense of community have made him a most highly respected member of grass roots service activities within the City. Edward Bone
For a quarter of a century now the Claxton Clangers, The Rainbow Singers and the Nickelodeons have been familiar names to residents of Christchurch homes for the elderly, bringing much-loved sessions of music, song and laughter. This couple has been part of each group and over the years has staged well over six hundred shows. For many years they were workers for the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind, collecting thousands of dollars on its behalf. They were volunteers for the Canterbury Westland Branch of the Cancer Society for many years, helping with barbecues and other fundraisers, phoning around for the Tuesday Group, visiting the housebound, collecting huge Christmas hampers, and far more than can be listed here. For ten years they were stalwarts of the Beckford Road Neighbourhood Support Group, organising neighbourhood watches, working with the City Council on traffic and roading problems, arranging home visits by Post Bank staff, and helping in a host of other ways. They describe themselves as little cogs in a wheel that makes the world go round, but without such cogs, well lubricated with love and laughter, the world as we know it would grind to a halt. Trevor and Hilda Bougen
The tale of his life is a catalogue of service to his community. Beginning as a volunteer for the Sumner Life Boat Rescue Service in the 1930’s, his voluntary work was interrupted by the Second World War in which he served in the RNZAF. Recovering from injuries received over the Pacific, he threw himself back into community work almost immediately. His wide range of involvements have included St John’s, Civil Defence, and School Committees, and memberships of Businessmen’s Associations, Parent Teacher Associations, and Masons. In March of 2003 he marked fifty years of service to the Most Venerable Order of St John, acting both as an administrator and for many years as a first aid instructor. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1974, presiding on the benches of the Christchurch District Court for over fifteen years on both traffic and criminal hearings. He became a Marriage Celebrant in 1982, and in 1985became the first Secretary of the Marriage Celebrants’ Association of Canterbury, of which he is a Life Member in recognition of his long service. The motto of St John’s – Pro Utilitate Hominem, For the Service of Humanity – could have been written just for him. James Henry Christensen JP
In October of 1983 a party of eight people went about the restoration of the neglected Major Hornibrook Track in the Port Hills. Drawn from residents of the Redcliffs – Sumner area, the group did not stop at that one project. Others followed. Over the following twenty years the group has restored and maintained many tracks between Castle Rock and Godley Head, and has built a number of new tracks, for example the Pleasant Bluffs Track, the Mt Cavendish Bluffs Track and the Whaka Raupo Track. In close association with the Summit Road Society of Christchurch, they have carried out a significant amount of weed control and planting and have been involved with local schools in the annual Arbor Day plantings. They regularly assist the City Council’s Ranger Service with revegetation projects. Their number now stands at forty-eight, who together contribute around two thousand volunteer hours every year to practical conservation work in the Port Hills. This on-going labour of love has helped and continues to help to preserve and protect a unique but constantly threatened environment that is the common heritage of all Christchurch. The East Enders Work Party
Even before World War II he was involved in community work, acting as a Scoutmaster in the London area and helping with the Gang Show. He saw service with the Fleet Air Arm during the war, after which he emigrated to New Zealand where he was soon deeply committed to local scouting, becoming a Scoutmaster and involving himself with administration to District level. Throughout the years, and despite deteriorating health, he has maintained that commitment to the Boy Scouts. He has been a member of the Canterbury Mountain Safety Council for many years, giving freely of his wide knowledge as an instructor on bush and survival courses. He still runs instruction courses on outdoor skills for school groups, scouts and cadets. He provides watercolour art for awards and newsletters, and gives assistance with publicity displays and promotional activities. His wartime service as a Flight Engineer gave him invaluable experience which he now shares with the Air Force Museum where he works as a volunteer twice a week. In teaching young people survival skills, his gift to his community has been one of the greatest of all; the gift of self-reliance. Douglas Gooday.
He has been involved with judo and karate since 1959, and his achievements are well known throughout the martial arts fraternity. As the holder of a 7th Degree Black Belt, awarded by the world Seido Karate federation he is ranked No.3 in the world. Without question he has made Seido Karate Do what it is today, giving thousands of hours of his time to the instruction of students and the running of the Dojo. He has taught thousands of aspiring students, nurturing over three hundred to Black Belt status. He has selected and coached many individuals and teams to provincial, national and international titles, and is a personal motivator to some of New Zealand’s finest tri-athletes. Under his guidance the Dojo has become firmly established, catering for people of all ages and socio-economic groups. In a time of growing social instability he has instilled in many the life skills, self-esteem and confidence needed for personal stability In an age of increasing superficiality, he has taught his many friends a philosophy that gives depth and meaning to life. Renzie Hanham
Having lost two brothers to Cystic Fibrosis, none could be more qualified that he to empathise with those affected by this terrible scourge. His training as a social worker and his professional experience as School Counsellor at St. Bede’s College have given him deep and invaluable insights into the emotional and financial needs of the families who have to come to terms with caring for affected children, and have, ultimately, to come to terms with the death of a child. His own experiences have given him the motivation to become actively involved with the Cystic Fibrosis Association of New Zealand for more than two decades. From 1982 to 1986 he was Chairperson of the Canterbury Branch and a member of the National Executive, from 1986 to 1990 National President of the Cystic Fibrosis Association of New Zealand. Returning to the Canterbury Branch, he worked towards the formation of a Charitable Trust, and from 1994 to 2001 was Chairperson of the Cystic Fibrosis Charitable Trust Canterbury. Although his efforts have been recognised within the Association it is only fitting that his dedication should be recognised by the wider community. Peter Haughey
Together they have contributed decades of voluntary work to their community, both as individuals and as a team. They have been involved in the Charleston Neighbourhood Association since its inauguration in 1980, helping to make Charleston the delightful and almost original enclave of character housing that it is. They were instrumental in the formation of the Friends of Edmonds Factory Gardens in 1990 and have since worked tirelessly for that group, campaigning for sponsorships and funds, organising working bees and garden parties, and spending long hours on improvements and maintenance. Both have been involved with St George’s Church in many ways, he on the Parish Council and as Works Convenor, she as a Sunday School teacher and Convenor of the Social Committee. Both have for many years been Christchurch City Council Honorary Wardens. He has served on the committee of the Christchurch Combined Neighbourhoods Association and the Hagley Ferrymead Community Board Funding Committee. He is a guide for the Personal Guiding Service, and a tutor for ESOL. She has been involved with the Girl Guides for over two decades. Their efforts have materially improved the life of both their immediate communities and that of the City as a whole. John and Jennifer Hoskin
He joined the Linwood Rugby League Club as a player in 1964, becoming a member of the Executive Committee the following year. His involvement in the sport thereafter is a history of Rugby League in Canterbury for the following four decades. From 1972 to 1989 he was on the Canterbury Rugby League Board of Control serving as a member, deputy chairman and chairman. In 1989 he resigned from the Board to take up a position on the New Zealand Rugby League Football Board of Directors, returning to the Canterbury Board in 1993. He has acted as manager for provincial and national teams at every level of participation, from the Canterbury 17 years representatives to the Canterbury Premier Representative Team, to the Junior Kiwis, to the New Zealand Kiwis in their 1989 tour of Britain and France. Throughout all his long career he has remained closely associated with the Linwood Rugby League Football Club, where he is currently serving his second term as Club President, and continues to serve so that the youth of today can enjoy the sport of Rugby League into the future. Ian Alwyn Jenkins
The list of his community involvements over the last six decades is almost too much to recite, encompassing as it does a host of organisations. For sixty-two years he has been associated with the Methodist Church as Church Treasurer, Parish Steward, auditor and financial advisor, and Synod and Conference Representative. He has long been associated with the Christchurch Methodist Mission, and provides accounting and management services to the United Church of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. He has for thirty-three years been a member of Rotary at both the Christchurch and Hornby Clubs, serving as Treasurer, Director, and President. He has provided weekly assistance with worship services in local churches and has provided auditing services to some fourteen not-for-profit organisations as diverse as Diabetes Christchurch, The Churches Hospital Support Trust, The Lewis Austin Medical Trust, the Waimakariri Dog Obedience Club and the United Nations Association. He has worked tirelessly for the past thirty-two years to foster the ideal of Church Unity, and has helped in the formation of a number of Co-operating Ventures in Christchurch and North Canterbury. Ross Thomas Lawn
She is one of those many people who work quietly but steadily over the years, performing those essential but unsung tasks that help to maintain the way of life that all within this society enjoy and have come to expect as of right. Many years ago she, along with a group of like-minded colleagues, realised that the maintenance of law and order was not just the job of the Police Force but a duty of all citizens. Thus, in 1986, she became a founding member of the volunteer group that works out of the Cathedral Square Police Kiosk and is still an active member and team leader, putting in two shifts a week. In 1994 she expanded her involvement to include the Papanui Community Watch, both on patrol and as a committee member. The following year saw her also working with the New Zealand Red Cross with the Logistics and Fire Support Teams and Meals on Wheels. The following year again, 1996, saw her working as a Crime Prevention Camera Operator. She continues in all these tasks to date, a reminder to all that individual rights are purchased only at the cost of community duty. Margaret Anne Johnston
So many worthy organisations begun by well-meaning people with the highest of intentions eventually fall apart through lack of adequate financial management. Those who give of their professional expertise to assist in financial matters are valuable indeed, and his assistance has been given freely and generously to many groups over the years. Since 1991 he has been Treasurer of the Cracroft Community Centre, providing detailed monthly statements of income and expenditure, and preparing the accounts for auditing, and for the past five years has been Membership Secretary. He has been Treasurer, Secretary and President of the St. Martins – Opawa Men’s Probus Club since 1991, and has been auditing the books of the St Mark’s Methodist Church and the City Mall Trade Aid Trust for many years. He has been Treasurer of the Conference of Churches of Aotearoa New Zealand since 1991, and has been a mentor with the Business in the Community Organisation since 1998. He assists in the preparation of the annual accounts for the New Zealand Conservation Trust. He has been a Treasurer De Luxe – indeed, a treasure of a Treasurer – to his many affiliations. Terry Leadbeater
They have been active members of the North-West Kiwanis Club since 1995. Despite his progressive sight impairment, they have fully participated as a team in all Kiwanis community projects. They have been particularly supportive of the new Southern Centre Multi-Sensory Room at QE II and have arranged funding for two very technically advanced pieces of equipment. They have a vision for the future of New Zealand, a vision that involves placing appropriate tracts of native bush into the ownership of Trusts which will ensure their perpetual preservation and availability for the enjoyment of all. To this end they have purchased the 146 hectare Omahu Bush block opposite Cooper’s Knob on the Summit Road. They have had a perpetual covenant placed on it to ensure that it can never be built upon, the bush never cut, and no earthworks created. Under the aegis of their Trust, the Gama Foundation, this land shall always be there for the enjoyment of the people of Christchurch. Their generous but unobtrusive support for the community of Christchurch is most gratefully acknowledged. Grant and Marilyn Nelson
The trauma of relocating to a new country, of trying to adapt to a wholly different, always confusing and often frightening new culture, all the while grappling with an unfamiliar language, is huge. Refugees are often like children again, needing guidance on even the simplest things. For over ten years now, these two have been as parents to the newcomers. Parents, friends, mentors and teachers, especially to the Cambodian community, they have devoted their lives to refugee welfare and rehabilitation. Countless days and nights have been devoted to advocacy and pastoral care, to setting up households and teaching English, to helping with taxation and legal matters, filling out forms, writing letters, and mediating in domestic problems, landlord disputes, employment queries, accidents and the endless details of a life that New Zealanders lead without a second thought, but every step of which has to be explained to newcomers. Theirs has been a labour of love and the expenditure of their time and resources far exceeds any small gifts or grants that may have come their way. Together they are an outstanding example of what the word “community” really means. Bill and Rita Noordanus
In 1997 she became a Trustee of the Council of the Canterbury Society of Arts and acted as Secretary until 2001, scrupulously recording the minutes of the monthly meetings, and acting as Vice-President from 1987 to 1991. Although now retired from the Council she still maintains her thirty-year long association with the Society as a volunteer worker. She attends the CoCA gallery every three weeks to address the 1200 invitations that have to be mailed out for each exhibition opening. She is also an important source of information for historical records, and researched and documented the history of the gallery in 1996 to update the published history from 1880 to 1980. She has assisted on membership drives and helped gallery staff in the research and documentation of the gallery’s collection. She has assisted with the mailing of the gallery’s quarterly magazine and has acted as host at openings. As a committed member, office-holder, artist and volunteer worker for more that thirty years she has contributed significantly to the life and vitality of the Centre of Contemporary Art and the Canterbury Society of Arts. Jewel Oliver
The question of law and order in the community is always a contentious one, and the degree to which private citizens could, and should, involve themselves in police work is always a matter of hot debate. The Police Force must of necessity set priorities for its investigations and the allocation of its resources, priorities which are always open to contest. While all too many members of the community feel that the Police should work for the community, he has recognised that the Police are part of the community and the whole community must work together for its own security. For seventeen years he has worked diligently and consistently to that end. Since 1986 he has worked on the Saturday night 8:00 p.m. to midnight shift at the Cathedral Square Police Kiosk, since 1987 as Team Leader. He was a founder member of the Papanui Community Watch serving on the Committee since 1994 with terms as both President and Vice President, and as a trainer. He has put in a stint every fortnight since 1996 working as a volunteer on the Crime Prevention Camera operation and in 1998-99 was a volunteer at the Bishopdale Community Police Office. Brian Henry Palmer QSM
His services to sport over the years have been quite outstanding, particularly in his chosen field of Triathlon. He has been a Committee member of the Canterbury Triathlon Club since 1996, serving as its President since 1998 and has been active both in the promotion of the sport, and in providing and managing events. He has been a member of Triathlon New Zealand since 1998 and has been Chairman for the past four years. He prepares and presents Traffic Management Plans to the Christchurch City Council and other local authorities for approval, enabling the Club and other organisations to run their events on City streets. He has been the local organiser of the Weet-Bix Kiwi Kids Tryathlon for the past three years, catering for thousands of children over that time. He is the Organiser of the Primary, Intermediate and Secondary Schools’ triathlons for the Canterbury region, and assists Primary Schools in Christchurch with their triathlon events, providing teachers with professional development so they can run their own events. His efforts over the years have brought pleasure to countless young Canterbury people, inspiring them to pursue a healthy, wholesome and socially invaluable sport. Ted Pearce
For most people, caring for two, three or four children is the limit of our capacity. In a career spanning more than three and a half decades she has been foster mother to over one thousand children, all of whom have passed through her home. Many have been severely ill-treated, deprived or rejected. Some have been terminally ill, on heart monitors or medical alarms. Working in conjunction with various organisations such as the then Department of Child Youth and Family Services, the CCS Care and Protection Unit, Mothers and Babies and the Paediatrics Department of the Christchurch Public Hospital, she has been Mum to an endless stream of needy children. Her fostering involved some longer-term placements but most were short-term stays and hers was the first private registered special purpose family home licensed to care for up to six children at a time. By the late 1980’s she became increasingly involved in the care of sick or special needs children, with all the even more demanding challenges that that involved. Despite the numbers and the challenges, she has loved and cared for every one of them. She is living proof that angels do exist. Beverley Ann Peters
For over half a century he has been actively involved in the Scouting movement, firstly with the Wolf Cubs in North Otago, then South Otago. In 1970 he moved to Christchurch where he took the position of Camp Chairman, later serving as Chairman of the Avon District for twenty three years. He was particularly active in the introduction of Kea Clubs. As District Chairman he was a member of the Area Executive where he served on the Finance Committee, the Awards Committee and later as Canterbury Representative on the National Executive. He still puts in one day a week as a volunteer at the Area Office. For twenty-three years he has served as a weekend volunteer once a month at the City Mission, and since retirement has assisted at the Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre one day a week. He is a tutor for the Adult Reading Scheme, helping particularly to teach young people the literacy skills necessary to obtain a driving licence. He has also served the organisation as a committee member. He is an active member of the Anglican church, serving on the Vestry of St Chad’s and later St Stephens. He is always there to help. William George Risk.
She has served her community in many ways for many years. She was a volunteer worker for the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind from 1965 to 1994. She was on the Board of the Cholmondeley Children’s Home from 1978 to 1988, serving as a board member and Chairperson. Since the mid-1990’s her efforts have been focussed on the Nurses’ Memorial Chapel. One of her triumphs there was the commissioning of the great stained glass window honouring nurses who served in wartime, a window whose design was based upon her careful research. As President of the Nurses’ Memorial Chapel she led every facet of the project up to and including the unveiling ceremony in April 2003. Like other celebrations she has organised, for example the chapel’s 75th anniversary and the centenary of nurses’ registration in New Zealand, her flair and attention to detail have made each event a work of art. Thanks to her, Christchurch now has a succession of nurses’ uniforms dating from the time of Florence Nightingale. Those that she could not locate, like that of Sibylla Maude, she painstakingly sewed. She is a human dynamo who has made a significant contribution to the lives of many. Lorraine Edna Shannon.
He joined the New Zealand Division of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserves as a seventeen-year old. Eight months later he was in action in the Second World War. Invalided home in 1944 he was discharged from the Service and shortly thereafter began his long involvement in charitable work. He was involved with the YMCA in Christchurch from 1946 to 1983, working with the Optimists’ Club on fundraising, organising transport for the elderly to Christmas dinners, planning Carols by Candlelight and other such projects. In 1985 he joined the RNVR-RNZVR Veterans’ Association and continues his association to date. He has served as President and is currently Vice-President. As such he has been closely involved with the arrangements for the annual memorial service in HMNZS Pegasus, and has played a central role in the organisation of this years’ celebration of the 75th anniversary of the RNVR in Christchurch, a most demanding task. He was a founder member of the Christchurch Naval Memorial Benevolent Trust in 1997 and remains a trustee to this day. He could look back now on a very long career of voluntary service and rest on his laurels, but he does not as he is still going onwards as strongly as ever. Francis Noel Smith.
Although resident in Christchurch for a little over eight years, he has managed to make a truly impressive contribution to the Christchurch community in that time. He is currently the longest serving major hotel general manager in Christchurch, having been employed at the Hotel Grand Chancellor for seven and a half years and has gone above and beyond his role as a General Manager to make the local accommodation industry more cohesive and co-operative. He is a Past Member and Past Chairman of the Canterbury Tourism Council, and Past Chairman and Executive Committee member of the Major Accommodation Providers Group. He was Christchurch and South Island Committee Chairman of the Variety Children’s Charity, and is currently National Vice President. Since 2001 he has served as a Committee Member of the Canterbury District Health Board’s Hospital Advisory Committee, and since 2002 as a Committee Member of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club. His outstanding efforts in marketing Christchurch as a tourist and conference destination have been invaluable to the improvement of the economy of the City as a whole, and the enhancement of the prosperity of the Christchurch community in general. Timothy Bruce Stonhill
In 1978 the group hired a Santa Suit for their Christmas Party. The minimum hire was for twenty-four hours, so, unwilling to waste valuable hire-time, a chilly bin of ice-creams was obtained and Santa and a group of helpers visited the Children’s Ward at Christchurch Hospital. Nurses returning from tea-break side-tracked the group to the Geriatric Wards, where they were received with delight, revealing a hitherto unexpected and untapped community need. Thus was born Operation Santa, a project that grew and grew over the years until it has assumed the proportions of a minor industry in its own right. The following year, four red suits were made and Santa visited all five Christchurch Public Hospitals, plus a number of retirement homes and Psychiatric Institutions. Happily, this activity gave pleasure to many. Sadly, it revealed a significant number of elderly or incapacitated people who never receive a visitor at Christmas, never receive a card, or a gift. Today, organising the 26th consecutive Operation Santa, the group has the assistance of over three thousand children from forty-three schools making Christmas cards for 5,500 people in 138 Retirement Homes, six hospitals and four psychiatric institutions. None could be more true to their motto: We Serve. Waimairi Lions Club – Operation Santa Project
Following two strokes in 1997 she was left totally blind. After months of coming to terms with her condition, and with much help from the Blind Foundation, a new vocation emerged, focussing on the blind and later on the disabled in general. Using the sophisticated technology now available she has reached high levels of skill in the use of computers, which has allowed her to hold committee positions on a number of bodies. She is currently President of the Christchurch and Districts Branch of the Disabled Persons’ Assembly and since 1998 has been Secretary-Treasurer of the Canterbury Branch of the Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand. She is the DPA representative on the Committee of the Human Rights Commission Speakers’ Forum Network. She is a Representative for the sensory area of disability for the Total Mobility Committee of Environment Canterbury, Disability Representative on the Canterbury District Health Board Disability Support Services Advisory Committee, and many more positions. She is an inspiration to all and proof that there is no defeat that, with willpower and help from a few friends, cannot be turned into a victory. Gloria Valerie Weeks.
Those who suffer from mental illness are often misunderstood, and battle constantly with not only the realities of poor health but also prejudice and discrimination in a society that all too often does not what to know. Those who work for and with this group, to ensure that its rights are upheld and its access to a better quality of life ensured, are a special breed indeed. More than four decades of experience as a Psychiatric Nurse and Social Worker have provided her with the professional skills required for the task, and her personal qualities the motivation and dedication to pursue it. She has been involved with the Step Ahead Trust for many years as a volunteer, serving as Chair of the Trust Board for eight years until 2002. In that capacity she toiled long and hard to ensure that the organisation was on a sound financial and philosophical footing. Under her leadership the organisation grew to employ sixteen staff, providing rehabilitation services in areas hitherto unaddressed. Although she has stepped down from her leadership role she continues to contribute actively and extensively to both individuals and the organisation. She is a giver who never counts the cost of giving, only the rewards. Pauline Woodward
Poddimok 