A NUMBER of central Victorians have been recognised for their contributions as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
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The Bendigo Advertiser speaks to the 2021 recipients about why they give back to their communities.
Eaglehawk, Paul Penno OAM
After pushing for what he believed in for over 40 years, Eaglehawk's Paul Penno has received a OAM in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Recognised for his significant service to veterans and to the local community, Mr Penno said he was humbled by the news.
"When I heard that I was being honoured, I just thought it has been 40 years of pushing and pushing for what I believe," he said.
"The four areas I really focused on in my life were health, education, welfare and veterans and you don't realise when you go through your life and you get involved in different things how much you have actually achieved."
Mr Penno, an ex-solider in the Vietnam War has held various roles at Bendigo District Sub-Branch RSL and the Welfare and Charitable Committee.
He currently is the president of the Bendigo Vietnam Veterans' Association and is the chairman of the Soldiers Memorial Institute Military Museum.
Mr Penno was a coordinator at the Loddon Campaspe/Mallee Regional Mental Health/Crisis Recovery Service for over 10 years, a former senior clinical nurse, lecturer in health services at La Trobe University and a founding president at St Luke's Mental Health Service.
"Being a mental health professional, I had a clinic in Bendigo for 15 years and I started to get Vietnam veterans coming through," he said.
Read more here: Queen's Birthday honours 2021: Paul Penno, OAM
Castlemaine, Christine Nixon AO
Christine Nixon was thrilled to receive an AO, after dedicating over four decades of her working life to law enforcement and tertiary education in Australia.
Ms Nixon was the first woman in Australia to be appointed a police commissioner, taking on the role in Victoria in 2001 and holding it for eight years.
"It's a very nice honour and certainly for me, it recognises the work I have been able to do for women in policing and in police more generally for years," she said.
She said a significant highlight has been seeing how far the women have come in the force over her career.
Most recently, she completed the role of chair of the national organisation Good Shepherd Microfinance, which she started in 2012 and has been on the former advisory board for the Alannah and Madeline Foundation.
Ms Nixon's current roles are chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and was previously the chair Monash College in Melbourne and a councillor and deputy chancellor at Monash University.
She also leads conversations on women's leadership after co-writing the Women Leading book with Professor Amanda Sinclair.
Read more here: Queen's Birthday Honours 2021: Christine Nixon, AO
Harcourt North, Kathleen Gray OAM
Recognised for her service to medicine through digital health education, Kathleen Gray is proud to receive an OAM.
Ms Gray said hearing the news was gratifying.
"It was certainly very gratifying to see the recognition of the importance of technological change in the health system," she said.
"I am taking this as an award for the work in which a large number of my colleagues have been doing for many years in the specialised field of health informatics."
Ms Gray is currently an executive committee member and director of education and workforce development at The Centre for Digital Transformation of Health, University of Melbourne.
"I started working with health information in Bendigo in 1980, I became the first librarian of the Bendigo Hospital," she said.
I have seen so much change in my career, it's astonishing.
- Kathleen Gray
"That was in the era when the internet was just starting to make significant information about health widely available.
"I have seen so much change in my career, it's astonishing.
"In the technology changes that are happening with healthcare, it's really important for everyone who is a user of health services, to understand what they can do with technology in healthcare that is useful."
Ms Gray said she is using the award as a way to get a key message out.
"It's one thing to make sure that allied health workers, researchers, doctors understand digital health but it's equally important that consumers and patients understand how to use it well," she said.
Sedgwick, Carolyn Naunton OAM
Carolyn Naunton said she felt honoured and grateful to receive an OAM as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours List.
"I really appreciate the people who have taken the time out of their day to nominate me for this award and I am thankful for that," she said.
"I am really grateful to them."
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Ms Naunton was recognised for her service to youth through the Girl's Brigade.
She has been a member since 1961 and during the time has been a board member, Lieutenant, chaplain and captain.
She is currently the unit leader for the Bendigo Brigade.
"The stand out of me is that I have been able to encourage girls to be the people that they have the potential to be," she said.
I think the stand out for me is seeing a little girl who is shy and intimidated become a good leader at the end of the program.
- Carolyn Naunton
"I think that with the program at Girls' Brigade, we want to encourage girls to discover who they are and discover who they are and how they fit in God's creation.
"I think the stand out for me is seeing a little girl who is shy and intimidated become a good leader at the end of the program because of the opportunities available.
"So seeing them come out at the end and see them develop and change and for them to see where they fit in this world is great."
Another career highlight for Ms Naunton was being the Samaritan's Purse Love in a Shoebox Bendigo Region coordinator.
"I am one of the project managers and we do it through the Girls' Brigade and since 1999, we have packed 5,500 shoeboxes that we have sent overseas," she said.
"I have been able to incorporate that in the girls' lives too, the girls learn how to pack the shoebox and they learn how to give something away and not get anything in return."
Bendigo, Julie Oberin AM
For Julie Oberin receiving an AM as part of this year's Queen's Birthday Honours List was unexpected.
Mr Oberin was recognised for her significant service to women and children experiencing family violence.
"I do this work because I am passionate about ending violence against women and until we do end it, to make sure that victim/survivors get the best possible response that we as a society can give," she said.
"I felt very privileged that my peers and colleagues had taken so much time and effort to put together what I have been doing in the family violence field so that they could nominate me.
"They did this behind the scenes without me knowing, which makes me smile."
Ms Oberin is the chief executive of Annie North and the national chair of the Women's Services Network.
She has worked in the domestic and family violence sector for more than 25 years and is involved in a variety of committees and boards.
Ms Oberin said one in three women in Australia have experienced physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by a man since the age of 15.
She became involved in the Women's Services Network (the peak body for domestic and family violence services across Australia) in 1997 and has been a long term chairwoman.
Read more here: Queen's Birthday honours 2021: Julie Oberin, AM
Eaglehawk, Fiona Gardner OAM
Fiona Gardner has been recognised with an OAM for her service to the community through social welfare organisations.
"I was so surprised," she said.
"This is a very humbling feeling that someone has thought enough of me to nominate me," she said.
"This means a lot that people have thought about what I have been and done throughout my life."
Ms Gardner is the La Trobe University Discipline Lead, Social Work and Social Policy, Rural Health School.
One highlight for Ms Gardner was her work to make social work more accessible in Bendigo.
"I wanted to bring social work and education to be accessible across northern Victoria and particularly here in Bendigo," she said.
"I have worked in Wodonga, Shepparton and Bendigo and in all of those places in the agencies I worked in really struggled to bring social workers to come and stay and it was partly because there were lots of people in the community who would've liked to do asocial work but for some reason like family or money they didn't feel like they could travel to Melbourne to do it."
"With things like this I am just one of a number of people that have worked in these areas to benefit the community."
Ms Gardner has been involved in Quakers Australia since the 1990's and has been a meeting facilitator since 1996.
She has been a Rural Australians for Refugees member since 2001.
Chewton, Margaret McLeod OAM
"Surprised" were the feelings felt by Chewton resident Margaret McLeod when she heard she was being recognised with an OAM.
"This award is recognition really for the group that has done really good work, not myself."
Ms McLeod was recognised for her service to conservation and the environment through co-founding the TreeProject.
"One day I was giving a lecture and I opened my mouth and I said that I would plan a million trees," she said.
This award is recognition really for the group that has done really good work, not myself.
- Margaret McLeod
"What happened was fabulous, a whole bunch of other people said they would join me and that's how the TreeProject started."
"It was really quite inspiring because I initially made that promise but in return so many other people stepped forward and knew it was an important thing to do."
A career highlight for Ms McLoad was people's willingness to step up and help the environment.
Ms McLeod is currently a secretary and member of the Chewton Landcare Group.
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