QUEEN’S SERVICE MEDAL (QSM)

LESTER DEAN Invercargill

For services to the Pacific community

Receiving a QSM for services to the Pacific community is a thrill and an honour, but Lester Dean says the real reward has come from helping Pacific Island people stand on their own two feet.

‘‘For me, it’s really not about me. It’s about recognising our Pacific community in Otago and Southland.

‘‘We are an important part of the economic and social life of the provinces, and my roll has been to galvanise Pacific people to be part of the community here.’’

The retired Kew School and New River School principal has been chief executive officer of Pacific Trust Otago (PTO) since 2014, and served the region’s Pacific communities during a period of financial uncertainty.

Mr Dean has kept PTO in operation and maintained services of a high quality by restructuring and seeking alternative commercial and business income streams.

This has included a joint venture with a local business to establish a container housing business called Pacific Pods Ltd, which aims to provide affordable dwellings and government stations throughout the Pacific.

Mr Dean was also general manager of the Pacific Island Advisory and Cultural Trust (PIACT) — a Pacific health and social services provider and support hub, delivering free services to the local community — in Invercargill from 2011 until 2014.

Other achievements include helping to establish an early childhood centre for Pacific children in 2001, a homework and after school programme at a Pacific Island church in the 1990s, the establishment of the Toa Scholarship programme for year 12 and 13 Pacific pupils in Otago, and instigating a project to construct two traditional vaka at PTO.

He continues to teach the Cook Islands language in Dunedin.

PAUL DUFFY

Edendale

For services to the community and local government

Southland district councillor Paul Duffy felt surprise and disbelief after learning he had received a Queen’s Service

Medal.

He then felt ‘‘a mixture of pride and humility knowing that everything I have been involved in has been with other people as a team’’, Mr Duffy said.

‘‘I wouldn’t have got much done on my own.

‘‘The support and help of my wife Alison and family, especially when I was fulltime farming, enabled me to put time into other activities,’’ he said.

He has been involved in many Southland community organisations, projects and committees for the past 20 years.

He is in his seventh term as a district councillor, having served two terms as deputy mayor.

He has chaired the South Catlins Charitable Trust since 2013, and has overseen the trust’s construction of a Heritage Centre with an interpretation centre at Curio Bay in the Catlins.

He also chairs the Southland Regional Heritage Committee, and is a member of Toi Tois Tokanui Lions.

He was on the Community

Trust of Southland board (199199), and chaired the Edendale Jubilee committee. He chairs Arts Murihiku, and served two terms of the board of Sister Cities New Zealand. He served on the boards of trustees of two schools for a total of 18 years, twelve of those as chairman.

He is a life member of the Southland Otago Ayrshire Club and honorary life member of the New Zealand Ayrshire Association.

DR ANNA THORNTON DYZEL Hokitika

For services to the community and public health

Anna Dyzel has been involved with projects for Girl Guides, Scouts, St John, and seeding community service opportunities for the Department of Corrections for nearly 30 years. She was instrumental in setting up a major event for New Zealand’s Children’s Day, which she initially largely funded herself, and which has grown to an event that has more than 2000 people attend free of charge, and arranges fundraising events during the year to help fund the event. Dr Dyzel has run the Hokitika Christmas Parade for 15 years and more recently led the fundraising of $20,000 for revamped town Christmas lights.

She was instrumental in the establishment of a now wellused skateboard park in Hokitika.

She supports the Westland Industrial Heritage Park, Hokitika Heritage Inc., the Life Education Trust, and is a member of the Wildfoods Festival committee.

Dr Dyzel has been a general practitioner in Hokitika since the early 1990s and has conducted research on growing a sustainable health workforce in Hokitika for doctors and nurses. She developed standing orders for rural GPs, which have been adopted by district health boards around the country as well as the Best Practice Advocacy Centre. Dr Dyzel said ‘‘as an immigrant to New Zealand from South Africa, being awarded the QSM was a fantastic honour’’. Writing funding applications was part of her focus in assisting the community with various projects, and if the QSM contributed to a successful outcome, ‘‘it would be fantastic’’, she said.

ANGELA DEIRDRE KEENAN Hokitika

For services to sport, particularly netball

Angela Keenan has contributed to netball in Hokitika in a variety of roles, including as president, secretary and coaching coordinator for the Hokitika Netball Centre since 1984.

Mrs Keenan has coordinated coaching programmes for coaches, players and umpires for 20 years, attended the New Zealand netball championships as a senior coach and U15 coach, and was the centre’s secretary for five years.

She has organised the netball summer fitness programme every summer for 15 years, which has involved fundraising for equipment and venue costs, organising sessions, liaising with schools to promote the programme, and running the sessions themselves.

Mrs Keenan has organised junior basketball for the Westland Basketball Association since 2006 and been running for the Hokitika Athletic Club since 2004.

She was driver of the development of a new sports complex at Westland High School and chaired the complex’s committee after local government funding was approved.

Mrs Keenan said, ‘‘I love working with youth and watching their growth, both personal and sportswise, encouraging them to develop to their potential at whatever level they want.’’

Mrs Keenan was made a life member of the Old Girls Netball Club in 2010.

STUART KEITH PATERSON Ranfurly

For services to the community

Stuart Paterson’s efforts within Maniototo Health Services have helped support better quality healthcare services in Ranfurly.

As chairman of Maniototo Health Services during its $7 million redevelopment project, Mr Paterson stepped up at a critical time. He took on the responsibility of managing the fundraising and building of a new healthcare facility for the people of the Maniototo, which officially opened in 2019.

He was Maniototo Health Services chairman from 2010 until the end of 2012 and resumed the role from 2015 until the present.

For more than 30 years, from 1981 to 2016, Mr Paterson was secretary of the Gimmerburn Domain Board.

As the past president of Maniototo Lions Club, he helped organise one of its largest fundraising events, the annual gift lamb competition. He has been a trustee of the GG Scott Trust, which has distributed funds related to health, education and sport in the local area, since 2008. Mr Paterson said he was surprised to receive the award as he believed he played only a small part in the various community projects he was involved with.

FRAN RAWLING

Dunedin

For services to heritage rose preservation

Abbotsford resident Fran Rawling was ‘‘a bit blown away’’ to learn she had been awarded a Queen’s Service Medal.

‘‘It’s great that it’s getting the work of rose restoration out to the public,’’ Mrs Rawling said of the award.

She has been involved with Heritage Roses New Zealand Incorporated (HRNZI) since 1997. ‘‘I believe in keeping them, they’re part of our history, and New Zealand’s national heritage,’’ she said. Her award also recognised the wider team work to save heritage roses, which had been brought to New Zealand since 1814.

She is currently the Otago convener of HRNZI, lead member of the New Zealand National Heritage Rose Register team, and has been the New Zealand representative to the World Federation of Rose Societies conservation and heritage committee since 2017. She was also national president (200107 and 201013).

She organised a seminar for heritage roses public collection curators including New Zealand’s botanic gardens last year.

She was the key driver of the restoration of the Dunedin Northern Cemetery and led the restoration of a collection of heritage roses from when the Victorian era cemetery was active.

This collection has since become a national base for the preservation and conservation of heritage roses introduced into New Zealand.

She has organised, supervised and worked on several beautification and conservation plantings in Otago, including maintenance of the Dunedin Northern Cemetery.