The citation talked about her special skills and dedication in which she always made people feel good about themselves.
She started off with the IHC's friendship programme in which volunteers befriend disabled people, and then moved into helping them achieve a range of skills and goals.
Mrs Hillier-Jones said working with people with intellectual disabilities reminded her to live in the moment and appreciate simple things such as a smile, a joke and a hand to hold.
"It only takes a couple of hours a week to bring a little happiness into their lives and it brings so much happiness into mine."
The Eves Realty Excellence Awards also saw Sinead Roach named Youth Volunteer of the Year for people under 25.
She was nominated by Homes of Hope for which she has worked as a volunteer since she was at school.
The citation said Sinead was a committed and reliable volunteer dedicated to the cause of vulnerable children. She had attended training courses to extend her understanding of the complex needs and circumstances of this work, and was studying to be a social worker through Waikato University.
"She is a wonderful team member, always smiling," said the Homes of Hope citation.
Trustee of the Year was retired urban planner Peter Simmons for his work with the Tauranga Budget Advisory Service. His nine years of volunteering included taking a leading role in future-proofing the service to meet the on-going needs of the community.
Mr Simmons and other trustees were instrumental in assessing the service and ensuring its documents provided excellent operational guidelines. He also looked at the best ways to assist retention of volunteers."
Volunteer Western Bay board chairman Colin Leader said it had been difficult to narrow the nominations down to three people.
"It is very humbling to see the dedication and hard work."
Give your time to good cause
Volunteer Bay of Plenty is going from strength to strength harnessing community goodwill to link people wanting to help with organisations seeking help.
"There's a lot people can do with just a little bit of their time," said manager Theo Ursum.
The Volunteer Centre has enlisted 324 new volunteers so far this year and handled 428 referrals to organisations needing a helping hand.
He said they now had 2000 volunteers on their books whom they referred to 90 member organisations.
People who were interested in becoming volunteers could now go to the new online volunteer job database www.volunteerwbop.com to view the 147 volunteer positions listed.
Mr Ursum said in their corporate volunteering programme, companies embarked on team building efforts lasting a day or half a day in order to assist worthy projects.
They were also trying to attract more students to volunteer.
