My Account
Two Warkworth women have been awarded the Queen’s Service Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, Lyn Wade for services to conservation and Joan Ballantine for services to the community.
Lyn is chair of the Little Barrier Island (Hauturu) Supporters Trust, and has been involved with the group since 1997, recruiting and coordinating volunteers, trans-locating birds and animals, contributing to field surveys and kiwi counts, undertaking field trips and collecting seeds and plants. She also writes regularly about the island for Mahurangi Matters (see p41 for her latest column) and is a registered nurse at Warkworth Birthing Centre. Her connection with Hauturu dates back to her childhood, when she visited with her father as he undertook the original vegetation and land surveys for the former
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Lyn says her QSM was completely unexpected. “I certainly was surprised, I was gobsmacked,” she says. “I thought, ‘why me?’, I was humbled because there are so many people in the community who do wonderful things. But I’ll look at it for Hauturu and the trust, and accept it for that.”
The second QSM recipient, Joan Ballantine, has been an active community volunteer for many years, taking part in Women’s Institute (WI) activities and fundraising for charities such as the Warkworth and Wellsford Hospice, including appearing in chainmail for the 2014 Hospice Calendar. She has made hundreds of white calico dolls for doctors to use in explaining medical procedures to child patients at North Shore and Starship Hospitals, and she is also an active member of the Warkworth branch of the Red Cross and the Warkworth RSA.
Joan has been a member of the WI since joining the Junior Country Women’s Institute as a Land Army girl in 1940 and, when she settled in Warkworth in 1980, served as president of the local branch for several terms.
