ROBYN BALDWIN
Timaru
For services to seniors
"Dealing with the elderly, you’re always saying to be very careful if you don’t know who they come from."
With the news of the honour coming out of the blue, it took careful examination of the electronic missive to confirm its veracity.
"It took me a few hours I think to think ‘Is this really right, is this really me?’.
"It’s a privilege, very honourable privilege."
Mrs Baldwin is being recognised for a long career providing support and services to seniors in her community.
After 26 years working at the Timaru Senior Citizens Association, there is a long list of initiatives Mrs Baldwin helped to co-ordinate, but a concert stands out as one she is particularly proud of.
For the International Year of the Older Person in 1999 she planned five functions, one of which was a charity concert.
"I filled the Theatre Royal, I was just an ordinary person trying to bring pleasure to senior people ... it was just lovely."
She was also responsible for leading an annual holiday week trip for seniors, and had travelled all around the South Island "from Bluff to Farewell Spit".
She has been a member of the Rotary Club of Timaru since 1999, and in 2020 was awarded a Paul Harris fellowship with the organisation.
In the wider community she has been a board member or committee member for many local groups, including South Canterbury Neighbourhood Support, Multiple Sclerosis Canterbury, Victim Support, and South Canterbury Age Friendly Communities.
Glenn Cockcroft
GLENN COCKROFT
Invercargill
For services to traffic safety
Glenn Cockroft is following in the footsteps of his father by earning a Queen’s Service Medal.
The award recognised his dedication to the traffic safety sector within the community and nationally for more than 30 years.
His late father, Graeme, was one of the main influences for his decision to join the Ministry of Transport Traffic Safety Service, and coincidentally received a Queen’s Service Medal when he retired from his career.
Glenn Cockroft joined the Ministry of Transport Traffic Safety Service at the age of 18 and became a sergeant from 1989.
He was a sergeant with the New Zealand Police from 1992 until he retired from the police in 1997.
One of the programmes he implemented and campaigned for was the national child safety programmes which involved him travelling from North Cape to Bluff.
He showcased a mobile showroom which promoted the importance of the safety of children.
“I spent 10 months visiting every school in the country and finished up in Bluff 10 months later."
To gather funds for the initiative he visited Lions Club members’ homes, communities and schools.
The impact of the programme was still seen in classrooms today, he said.
"I am currently the regional manager of CrestClean and we clean a number of schools. I still see some of those resources used today — 30 years later and for me that makes the 10 months that I spent very well worth it."
After he completed the programme he received a commendation from the then ministers of transport and police for his contributions to child safety education.
He has been involved with national campaigns since the late 1980s.
Since he retired, he built and opened a museum dedicated to preserving New Zealand traffic history, located on his property.
He had a large collection of memorabilia which related back to the early days of traffic enforcement in New Zealand.
His museum was named New Zealand Garden Magazines Shed of the Year in 2018.
Mr Cockroft helped establish and run the Cycle Bike Park Safety Training Centre in Invercargill which he named Graeme Cockroft Cycle Park, after his father.
WILLIAM HARRIS
Mr Harris receives a Queen’s Service Medal for his services to Fire and Emergency New Zealand, and to the community.
The Riverton native arrived in Clinton in 1979 to work as a digger driver and started his own general contracting business three years later."You only get out of the community what you’re prepared to put in and, over the 43 years I’ve been here I’ve had huge support.
"I take great pleasure in helping anybody showing potential, and in working alongside others to help get community projects off the ground.
"In Clinton, that’s easy, when there are so many people willing to step up and do their part."
Mr Harris has undertaken projects for the local school, golf club, childcare centre and Lions Club initiatives.He is a regular supporter of fundraisers, and sponsors the Clinton Senior Citizens bus service.
For the past three decades, he has been a member of the local volunteer fire brigade.
Mr Harris was chief fire officer from 2006 to 2020 and, in 2005, helped establish the first responder unit for whose governing trust he still serves as chairman.
He said he was "humbled" to receive his QSM.
"I’m very grateful to all those who have supported me since I arrived in the district. Hopefully, this will encourage others to keep contributing to their communities in whatever way they can."
GLORIA ELAINE McHUTCHON
Tapanui
For services to the community
For Gloria McHutchon, community service is a natural side effect of living in a rural community such as Tapanui.
"In a rural area you can’t live without your community... we’re all depending on each other."
She has served the community widely.
The former director of international pupils at Blue Mountain College in Tapanui started voluntarily running adult English language classes in 2006
after observing the growth of migrant workers in the region.
"There’s a huge need. I had someone coming up from Mossburn — that’s nearly a two-hour drive — to come up here for English lessons at one stage, because he couldn’t get lessons anywhere else."
She is also part of a church group that provides boxes of home necessities and baking to welcome migrant workers to the region.
Mrs McHutchon is vice-chairwoman of Moa Flat Rural Women, and organised the West Otago Armistice Day centenary celebrations.
She has been a member of the Heriot Plunket Society for more than 40 years and is a life member and former chairwoman.
She is a founding member of Step Sisters Leisure Marching Team and organises the annual Heriot School craft week.
Her community work was only possible through the support of others, she said.
"I get a bee in my bonnet and decide that these things should happen and everyone else lines up and says ‘yes, that’d be great’.
"I’ve just been very lucky that I’ve got wonderful friends and a great community."
Cromwell
For services to the community
A heart for others has been the driver behind more than 20 years of community work for Noeline Watson.
"There’s no better way to have fun and to make yourself feel better about yourself than to do something for somebody else," she said.
Mrs Watson’s service has covered a range of organisations in Cromwell and its outer reaches.
She was a founding member and secretary of Abbeyfield Wakatipu, providing purpose-built, affordable housing for older people in Wakatipu, as well as being an active member of Old Cromwell Inc, promoting restoration and use of buildings in the town’s historic precinct since 1990.
In 2009 Mrs Watson became a member of the Cromwell Community Welfare Trust.
She has been the sole organiser for the Care and Friendship days — arranging venues, volunteers, entertainment and meals — for several years.
Mrs Watson has managed Meals on Wheels drivers in Cromwell for the past 12 years, and has been the secretary and licensed lay preacher with St Andrew’s Church.
In 2011, Mrs Watson was elected peoples warden for the Upper Clutha Anglican parish.
Mrs Watson said she was "completely shocked" to learn of the honour.
"I’ve been thinking about this QSM and for me I tried rationalise it and I think it’s quite a simple methodology — doing things that you enjoy to make other people feel better, that makes other people happy."
