Community heroes honoured

The nominations have been counted, fierce late night discussions in smoky back offices have ensued and the winners of this year's Masterton Civic and Young Achievers Awards have now been decided and announced.
Mayor Bob Francis will present the awards to what he called an "extremely diverse" range of awardees at a ceremony at 4.30pm tomorrow in the Masterton Town Hall.
Community services manager Jan Gerritsen said the number of awards given every year depends entirely on the nominations received, and this year there are two civic and five youth awardees.
The winners of the civic awards this year are Flora Johansen and John Allan.
Mrs Johansen is being recognised for more than 50 years of social and community service to the Masterton district.
This has included an unfaltering dedication to the Lansdowne Presbyterian Church, where she has had considerable involvement in the Young People's Club, sung in the choir and supported the wider church community.
She has been involved with the Order of St. John where she undertook many roles, and has also supported a large number of sporting clubs in the district.
She said she was floored by the decision to give her the award.
"It's no good, I don't deserve it. I'm not a person who thinks I should be cock o' the hoop. When I found out you could have knocked me down with a feather ... it's a lovely honour, but by golly."
Mr Allan has also been an outstanding volunteer in the Masterton district.
He has been a strong member of St. Luke's church and assisted in many church related services.
He is a life member of 'senior-net', a programme he founded a decade ago to help elderly people become acquainted with computers.
Mr Allan cited his work with Wairarapa National Heart Foundation, for whom he has helped organise book fairs for the past 10 years, as something he is proud of, but was slightly bemused by the award.
"There are thousands of people doing this kind of thing. My job is to pick out those books with a little bit more value. You're learning all the time and having fun, and you don't really expect to get awards for having fun."
He put the good results the book fairs get down to a team effort and nothing that one individual can do.
In the Young Achievers category the five winners are: Daniel Haxton, Vynessa Smith, Narelle Brown, Blair Gillam and Emma Gribben.
Daniel, a Masterton Intermediate student, is a gun table tennis player who won the table Tennis New Zealand Junior Boys Umpire Award, no mean feat for a person of 13. He was also a member of the Red Star team that won a school tournament earlier this year.
Vynessa has dedicated much of young life to dance, joining the Geraldine Inder School of Dance and Dramatic Arts at age three, and has reached a number of significant dance achievements.
These include dancing with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in their production of La Sylphide at the age of 12, and being nominated for a coveted New Zealand Institute of Modern dance scholarship. She goes to St. Matthew's Collegiate School.
Narelle, a Wairarapa College student, is a member of the Riversdale Surf Lifesaving club and for the past two years has won the club's award for the person who put in the most voluntary hours.
She has also won the Wellington region award for "rescue of the year" and was a top-three finalist in the surf lifesaver of the year award.
Blair has made an "outstanding" contribution to the Masterton youth community. Blair has given much of his time to instructing people in how to master the ropes, giant swing and climbing wall at Oasis Trust, and helped set up a Disabled Climbing Club.
He is also in charge of Wairarapa Disabled Snow Sports NZ, which sees him recruiting young skiers, organising trips, and fundraising.
Emma is a Girl Guide extraordinaire, who has been involved in guiding since she was six. Emma was awarded the highest possible honour for New Zealand Girl Guide earlier this year ? the Queens Guide Award.
She is leader and inspiration to the younger guides and is also busy outside the guides ? she volunteers at Vet Care in Masterton and has been a student parliamentary representative.