Last week was the annual lunch for over 100 volunteers hosted by Mosman Council; PP Clare was present and provided a report as below:
We had several tables of people who volunteer with Mosman Council.
After we finished eating, Mayor Carolyn Corrigan presented Certificates of Excellence to people who had been Volunteers for 5 years, 10 years, etc. Unfortunately, not everyone was present to receive their certificates.
Only 2 of us received certificates for more than 25 years of Volunteering.
I think mine was for 25 years of volunteering as a Guide at Mosman Art Gallery as I have been a guide there from the beginning. I was their first guide. I volunteered because my late husband was one of the first supporters of the Gallery.
At Council I also did JP duty for almost 20 years and was a Tax Help Volunteer at Council, Sydney Uni, Crows Nest Community Centre, etc. giving free tax advice to people on low incomes, ranging from students to sole parents and pensioners. I was also an Adviser on several Council Community advisory Groups for several years. (Art, Library, & Cultural; Business & Marketing; Community and Safety, Access, Art Gallery and Friendship Cities). I was on the Committee which organised the Paralympics Fundraising Dinner in May, 2004. I was on the Mosman Friendship Cities Community Consultative Committee. I travelled with the Friendship Cities Community Consultative Committee and paid for my own travel with delegations to Mudanjiang in Far NE China and Otsu in Japan. (Many of the Japanese delegation are Rotarians so we have a bond as I’ve been a member of the Rotary Club of Mosman since 2000 and was President in 2007/2008. Some of them have visited one of our Rotary lunch meetings.)
For a few years I was Coordinator of the recycling of computers to Glen Innes with whom Mosman Council has a Friendship City agreement. I used to drive them up there and then stay with friends who had a farm there. (Also, in my year as President of Rotary, we sent an Aboriginal girl from Glen Innes to Canada on a year’s Rotary Youth Exchange.) For a few years I helped people learn how to use a computer at Council in the Seniors Centre.
I was a member of original organizing committee for the Mosman Festival for several years of which Dame Joan Sutherland was patron. It was an annual event but after she retired, it eventually became a biennial event. (I used to take my children to join the Sandcastle Competition but one year someone asked me to participate as well as they were trying to start an older age category so I decided to make a life size person in relief. Someone came by and remarked that it looked like an Egyptian so I made it into an ancient Egyptian. I actually won first prize for it! I didn’t participate in future years but at least helped get that category started.)
I was a member of the Committee organizing the Paralympics Fundraising Dinner in May, 2004. (Our major Guest Speaker was Julie Higgins who lived in Mosman and won 2 gold medals as a female equestrian in the Summer Paralympics in 2000 and was Australia’s first equestrian Paralympic gold medallist.)
A remarkable story of achievement in giving to the Mosman and wider community. Well done Clare!