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'Crikey what an honour': Art lover recognised
'Crikey what an honour': Art lover recognised

Otago Daily Times

time9 hours ago

  • Entertainment
  • Otago Daily Times

'Crikey what an honour': Art lover recognised

When Canterbury art lover Jackie Watson told her husband Angus she had a secret to share with him that would ''blow your socks off'' it turned out he was not surprised by her news. The Ohoka resident was awarded the King's Service Medal in the King's Birthday Honours list for services to the community and the arts. Although the public announcements were made on Monday, recipients are informed months earlier and sworn to secrecy, so Jackie only told Angus her big secret two days before that. Angus believed ''it was only a matter of time'' before his hard-working, community-minded wife would be honoured in this way. When Jackie opened the letter informing her of the news she was pleasantly surprised and ''crikey what an honour'' came to mind. ''It is nice to be rewarded this way, and for the work I do to be recognised,'' she said. As a Kaiapoi Tuahiwi Community Board member since 2010 and chairwoman since 2021, Jackie has contributed to many of Waimakariri's arts and community initiatives. She played a key role in All Together Kaiapoi (ATK), a group of volunteers who came together to hold a variety of free public events to assist the Kaiapoi community in its post 2010-2011 earthquake recovery. It was only disbanded in February last year. She was a valuable member of the Waimakariri Earthquake Support Service during the recovery time, helping adversely affected families. Jackie has also been a Waimakariri Community Arts Council member since 1991. She is a founding member of the Kaiapoi Art Expo, now in its 19th year, and has played a key role in developing an arts strategy for Waimakariri. She is also a trustee and former chairwoman of the Waimakariri Public Arts Trust. In that role Jackie has helped increase the number of sculptures in Waimakariri's public places. The most recent installation was Windswept Tree, a sculpture by Raymond Herber, at Silverstream Terrace Reserve. Jackie also led the initiative to open the public art gallery, Art on the Quay, in the Ruataniwha Kaiapoi Civic Centre, and has so far organised 100 exhibitions there, the most recent being, Through Different Eyes which opened on May 29. Of all the community and art initiatives she has been involved in, Jackie said she is most proud of her role as a founding organiser of the Kaiapoi Art Expo ''which continues to grow'', her role in establishing the Art on the Quay Gallery and her continuing role there helping to promote artists, plus her work establishing Kaiapoi's Waitangi Day Celebrations in Trousselot Park. The North Canterbury News extends its congratualtions to the six North Canterbury community members honoured in the Kings Birthday honours. Today's feature on Jackie Watson begins a series telling the stories of all those honoured.

King's Service Medal
King's Service Medal

Otago Daily Times

time18 hours ago

  • General
  • Otago Daily Times

King's Service Medal

Photo: supplied Fergus More Invercargill Services to the Southland community and law Invercargill lawyer Fergus More is officially resting his case — but not before one final verdict is reached. Mr More is ending a 44-year law career with the honour of receiving a King's Service Medal. "I did not expect my career to end with this honour," he said. Less than 30 days after being bestowed with the award, he is hanging up the robes for good and starting retirement. When Mr More opened the mailbox a few weeks ago, he was left "gobsmacked." He was "deeply, deeply honoured", and shocked in the best way possible. "I don't see myself as any different to any other practitioner — I've just been doing it a lot longer." He has worked as a partner at Scholefield Law and with many not-for-profits in the community, but most of his work has been advocating for children and youth. Mr More is the longest-running youth court advocate in New Zealand and longest running lawyer for children in Southland. He has been the lawyer for Child in Care of Children Act and Oranga Tamariki proceedings since 1985. Mr More said he would never have been able to help the community if he himself did not have the help of his wife, and his law partner. His biggest career highlight had been working with, and for, the families and the children of Southland. After 44 years of practising law, and at 72, Mr More said the demands of the job were definitely becoming more intense, and he believed it was time to rest his feet. "I'll leave it in the hands of the younger set now."

GP honoured, warns of health funding
GP honoured, warns of health funding

Otago Daily Times

time2 days ago

  • Business
  • Otago Daily Times

GP honoured, warns of health funding

A nationally honoured Southland GP is concerned about government funding focus on virtual and after-hours treatment as opposed to the face-to-face, personalised care her practice can offer. Dr Glenys Weir, who was awarded a King's Service Medal on Monday, said she was worried about the government prioritising its funding to after-hours and telehealth care over much needed support and training of GPs. Last month, in a pre-budget announcement, Minister of Health Simeon Brown committed $164 million in funding to urgent and after-hours healthcare in the regions. The following week, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora confirmed its plans for a new 24-7 virtual telehealth service, set to go live as early as this month. "All the money's gone to after-hours [and] telehealth," Dr Weir said. "It's not a solution. "We knew 10, 15 years ago that we were going to have this crisis in general practice, because it was a decade of not training enough." She said general practice had changed incredibly and she and her colleagues at Gore Medical Centre were now seeing about 2000 patients per full-time GP. These days, she said you would not see the same GP as much as you would in the past and therefore would not get the same continuity of care. Only recently, she had seen a patient presenting with a foot problem who actually had an underlying heart issue as well as a range of other issues contributing to poor health. She said she was able to give him an ECG, prescribe medications and address his other health concerns. "If it was telehealth, they'd only be dealing with the foot," she said. Dr Weir joined the medical centre in 1981 and was the first female doctor in the Gore District. She said she was now treating the fifth generation of some families. Knowing a patient well means as a practitioner can sense changes and pick up on underlying issues, she said. "We're well-trained and just pick up so much more," she said. She said to accommodate the increased workload, GPs were having to work harder, doing the more serious tasks while easier ones were being delegated to nurses, who had really stepped up. The doctor received her royal honour this week for her services to health, and had volunteered her service to rural health days, offering free consultations for health screening and promotion. She also had a little clinic in the Plunket rooms out in Waikaka, where she would see a lot of young mothers and do immunisations. Now, she said rural patients were more inclined to travel into town to visit the centre, as they were coming and going more frequently. Despite the increased workload, she was still encouraged by the calibre of GPs she saw coming through, particularly the group of young people that were committed locally. Still working part-time at the centre, she said due to the quality of these young doctors, she felt comfortable retiring probably by the end of the year. She accepted the award on behalf of her team, those who had come before her and those who were the future of the practice, because she could not have done this alone, she said. "You just can't carry it on your own."

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