Lake Hāwea resident Colleen Carr has been awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for services to the community in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours List.

Colleen has been active in the Lake Hāwea community for 24 years with community organisations, fundraising and events.

She is a familiar face at community events, and when the Wānaka App visited her last week she and husband Errol were working hard on community newsletters and activity planning at the dining room table.

The couple moved here in 1998 after 22 years in Sydney, where Colleen taught at private girls’ schools. She started out doing some volunteer work, then Te Kura o Tititea Mt Aspiring College (MAC) found out about her MA in special education and asked her if she would teach.

“I loved MAC,” Colleen said.

She took over the extension programme, Rutherford, taught English, and became “very involved” in coaching and administration for netball.

“I like to be involved and active,” Colleen told the Wānaka App, and anyone who knows Colleen knows that is an understatement.

She has organised quiz nights, village dinners at the community centre to celebrate volunteers and at mid-winter, as well as Christmas picnics. In her ‘spare time’ you may find her weeding the community centre garden.

The Hāwea community 24 years ago was “mostly old people”, Colleen said, but an influx of young families began to change the face of the township, and Colleen was concerned many of them did not have family support here.

She set up three outreach groups: Hāwea Hangouts, for families; the Wise Ones, for the over 60s; and Haere Mai for people from various cultures who have settled in Hāwea.

The Friday evening group for families offers a monthly barbeque and activities for children; Haere Mai offers social events and ESOL lessons, and can attract as many as 60 people to an international dinner.

Colleen established a monthly village meet and greet, particularly encouraging new residents to get involved in the community. 

She entered Hāwea in the Community of the Year event a few times, once placing third nationally. 

“Great things were happening here,” she said.

Colleen retired from MAC about seven years ago, but she’s not one for sitting back and watching the world go by.

She has started a local bike group - the Peripatetic Pedallers; and is well known locally for organising the popular annual Town Vs Country Waitangi Day sports contest between Hāwea Flat and Lake Hāwea. 

The town vs country event has taken a break the past year or so because of Covid-19 but Colleen hopes to find someone who can take over its coordination. 

An extrovert, Colleen had a happy childhood as the youngest of her family in small-town Ngapara (near Oamaru).

“My mother valued community,” Colleen said. “The village brought me up.”

She believes that a healthy community flows from “lots of activities which people engage in - which gives a sense of belonging”.

“Our theory is, it doesn’t matter how many people come, we make sure they have a good time.

“Once they start to get involved, they get to know people. We’ve really been seeing that with our older people now, they’re really supporting each other.”

As the Hāwea community grows, Colleen is continuing to welcome newcomers - most of whom continue to be young families.

She has concerns about the township’s infrastructure keeping up with growth, but adds: “That has nothing to do with the people”.

“We’ll be more than happy to welcome them.”

Colleen has been involved with the Lake Hāwea Community Centre committee since 2010 and during that time has held the positions of chairperson, deputy chairperson, and secretary.

She has been a member of the Foreshore Management Group since 2010, working to enhance the lakefront reserve, has organised clean-ups around the town, and has undertaken gardening on a voluntary basis around the Community Centre, Hāwea Bowling Club, and other areas. 

Colleen has also been a member of the Upper Clutha Lions for 22 years.