Celebrating our creators of social capital

Today, we celebrate a long list of not just achievers but also good and active community members.

The reality and threat of Covid have hung over New Zealand and the world all year. Just as the light at the end of the tunnel grew brighter, the Omicron variant dims the future again.

People are stressed and tired. Even in the South, where we have had it good by the standards of Auckland and just about everywhere else, we wish Covid-19 would just go away and normality would return.

So many of our community events have been cancelled not just this and last year but well into next.

Clubs, groups and churches have had their programmes upset and momentum lost. Many face a weaker future because of that. Hopefully, they can recover their vigour.

So many hard workers behind these events and these organisations put in the work only to find it was in vain.

While most of such community stalwarts never receive public recognition, some appear in the annual Queen’s Birthday and New Year Honours’ list.

We are more likely to see them in the Queen’s Service Medal line-up than among the exalted dames and knights.

That is not, of course, to downgrade the extraordinary achievements of those in the upper levels.

Prof Sir Jim Mann is the southern standout this year in the New Year’s list. The University of Otago has been privileged to include an academic of his international standing in its ranks since 1988. He is also renowned for the quality of his character.

New dames Lisa Carrington and Sophie Pascoe are also on top of the world, this time in sport. They are also household names.

How many of us, though, know about the likes of southern QSMs Aart Brusse, Lynley Bunton, Glenn Cockroft, Bill Harris, Gloria McHutchon, Bella Morrell, Irene Mosley and Noelene Watson?

Mr Brusse has been contributing to music since 1968 as a teacher, director and musician, including as a teacher and conductor of Dunedin Saturday morning music classes all that time. Teacher Mrs Brunton, of Dunedin, volunteered widely across the arts and education.

Mr Cockroft’s record working for traffic safety in Invercargill and nationally, especially with children, is phenomenal. Bill Harris was the Clinton chief fire officer and contributed to many of the district’s projects.

Mrs McHutchon’s 40 years in the West Otago community encompassed Plunket (of which she is a life member), voluntary teaching to speakers of other languages, church welcome packs, the sport of marching and the organising of craft weeks and Anzac services.

The Rev Canon Morrell has been a kuia and leader of many community groups. For more than 60 years she has supported and advocated the use of te reo and been involved in a wide range of Maori groups.

Mrs Mosley has been more in the public eye than some because of her formidable energy on the Otago Southland neurosurgery campaign and in efforts for the new Mosgiel pool. These are but two of at least a dozen organisations and campaigns with which she has worked, usually in advisory, strategic, project management or fundraising roles.

Mrs Watson’s volunteering in Cromwell covers myriad welfare and church roles. She has also been an active member of Old Cromwell Incorporated.

It is the likes of these people and thousands of others who help keep our society healthy, who build our social capital.

They give a lot, and it is appropriate that we can honour and celebrate them.

The honours’ list this New Year is made up of 92 women, 90 men and one non-binary person. Sixty percent are listed as New Zealand/New Zealand European, 14% Maori, 8% Pacific Peoples, 4% Asian, 1% other and 13% unspecified.

As it says officially, the New Zealand Royal Honours system “provides a way for New Zealand to thank and congratulate people who have served their communities and to recognise people’s achievements”.