Four celebrated as Napier's Civic Awards mark 40 years

Citizens' Civic Award recipients, from left, Dr Tim Bevin, Philip 'Piripi' Smith, John Gilmore, and Yvonne Atkins.

Four people have been recognised in Napier's annual Civic Awards which were presented by Mayor Bill Dalton on Wednesday night.

The four, whose awards were celebrated at the Napier Conference Centre, are mariner Piripi Smith, sportswoman, performing artist and Red Cross and Meals on Wheels stalwart Yvonne Atkins, Returned Services stalwart John Gilmore, and doctor Tim Bevin.

Mr Smith is best known as director of Te Matau a Maui Voyaging Trust and skipper of the ocean-going masted waka which has been based off West Quay in the Napier inner harbour since completing 140,000km of Pacific voyaging in late 2012.

The waka has carried thousands of people on education and knowledge-based voyages under the guidance of the skipper whose nominees described him as a quiet man who has made a difference to so many people in so many projects, and is a "true celestial navigator". He has devoted thousands of hours to training crew and to maintenance.

He has also been a driving force behind the celestial star compass at Waitangi Regional Park, Awatoto, which he regards as "probably the most significant historical land site in all of Hawke's Bay", and where he will share his mātauranga (knowledge) with the next generation.

Yvonne Atkins is a long-serving member of the Red Cross Napier branch, and has been a Meals on Wheels driver for more than 50 years. But there's more.

She has spent 23 years helping behind the scenes and front of house for the Stars of Tomorrow Stage School of Singing, Drama and Dance, and the Napier Girls' High School Old Girls' Association. She originally joined the association as a reunion delegate 24 years ago compiling a database of pupils since 1884, and is its treasurer.

The former Hawke's Bay tennis representative is a life member of the Taradale Cricket Club, Napier Netball, HB Netball and Eastern Netball, and has received a Netball NZ Service Award for her dedication.

She has also been a driver for Meals on Wheels for more than 50 years, plying the same route up to five times a month, a huge commitment given most drivers average once a month. "I love it, it's an amazing organisation," she says.

Mr Gilmore has looked after old soldiers for more than four decades, initially as a manager of war pensions at what's now the Ministry of Social Development, then as a support officer for Taradale and District RSA, and Napier RSA.

Besides training support officers across the Bay, His voluntary work has included assisting with sorting out hearing aids, or glasses, or doctor visits. "They'll talk about their experiences, often very vividly," he says. "Loneliness is a big thing."

Dr Bevin has a general practitioner in Napier and part-time hospital and district health boards medical officer in Hawke's Bay for 33 years, and also medical advisor for Te Poutama Tautoko addiction programme.

Other voluntary roles have included being a trustee for the Hawke's Bay Addiction Centre Trust for more than 25 years, and of the Princess Alexandra Medical Trust for 23 years, and a Cranford Hospice board member for seven years. He's also been a doctor to the Hawke's Bay Rugby Football Union for 16 years.

The Springhill Treatment Centre, run in partnership with the HBDHB, has been helping people in need for nearly four decades, and Dr Bevin says: "I've known some wonderful people who come out the other side of rehab with a lot more strength than they ever thought they had."

It was the 40th anniversary of the introduction of the Napier City Council's Civic Awards, which were introduced in 1977.