Rewards for outstanding effort

SATURDAY evening held a large gathering of representatives from surf clubs from as far away as Darwin and Gove in the Northern Territory, right down to the Queensland border. The occasion was the 2016 Awards of Excellence for Surf Life Saving Queensland.
The dinner was held at Twin Waters and those in attendance agreed that it was in deed a gala event.
In his opening address, state president Ralph Devlin welcomed honored guests. He then went on and extended a very warm welcome of encouragement to representatives of the Gove and Darwin clubs situated as they are in the remote regions of the Northern Territory. In reference to all guests he thanked them for their outstanding commitment to, “what has now become a very complex organisation”.
For our clubs on the Sunshine coast there were several outstanding awards. Among those were the awards that went to members of Mudjimba. This was good to see. As one of our smaller clubs on the Sunshine Coast their contribution to our organisation for the 2015/6 season has indeed been outstanding.
At the recent Sunshine Coast Awards of Excellence they received the Club of the Year and finished in second place for the very prestigious Buhk-Wilks Trophy.
Then on Saturday evening Michael Hughes was named Volunteer of the Year and Guy Tanner Assessor of the Year; and following this Peter Harvey received a special commendation as runner-up in the coveted Life Saver of the Year.
Closer to home Brock Redwood of Sunshine Beach was voted the Rookie Coach of the Year. With their progressive attitude to competition this was good to see. With a young member such as Brock receiving this award it speaks volumes for the seasons ahead.
Apart from those named as recipients there were many more from both Sunshine and Mudjimba who also made the finals of the judging – well done to all.
Toward the end of the presentations came one that was described by one veteran as being “what our job is all about.” That was the Dearlove Medal, presented for the most outstanding incident of resuscitation performed in Queensland during the season.
On this occasion medals were presented to four members of Noosa for their organised, precise and successful application of resuscitation on a 13-month-old infant on Noosa’s Main Beach. The members involved were Steve Freckelton, Peter Langbridge, Yolande Hass and Bryce Grandemange. It was just one of those times when everything went well.
“All involved had a job to do and everyone performed spot on,” Mr Freckelton said.
The medal is named in honor of Jack Dearlove, life-member of Australia’s National Council, life-member of Queensland and Mooloolaba, his home club. He also has the rare honor of having been named Grand Knight of Life Saving an International award of the highest order. One of his many achievements was, on a hot November day in 1961, when he volunteered to be one of the guinea pigs for trialing expired resuscitation.
Thus it is only appropriate that the award for outstanding incidents of resuscitation should be named after this great clubby.
It is good to see people in emergency services being recognised for their hard work and dedication. Too often these people spend years, not only volunteering their service and skills but also when the situation demands, going in harm’s way.
However, happy to say last week Noosa patrol captain Carolyn Lansdown was awarded the National Medal. This comes as a result of her years of dedicated service to the Country Fire Authority and SES, in Victoria.
Add to this her years in the life saving movement at Noosa Heads and you have a remarkable total of some 25 years of service to the communities in which she has lived; so on behalf of our community, congratulations to Carolyn Lansdown National Medal.