Gold Coast surf lifesaving volunteer Melinda Jackson vies for top spot at Queensland Volunteering Awards 2021
One of the Gold Coast's most devoted surf lifesavers is one of three finalists vying for a prestigious national award. DO YOU KNOW HER?
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GOLD Coast surf lifesaving volunteer extraordinaire Melinda Jackson is a finalist in the Queensland Volunteering Awards 2021 being held in Brisbane on Friday.
She’s one of three Queenslanders in the hotly contested Volunteer of the Year category.
Her 22-year-old daughter Emma dobbed her into Volunteering Queensland, who put her forward as a nominee in the awards being held during National Volunteer Week.
“Bless her cotton socks, she’s a beautiful young lady, who too does a lot for surf lifesaving,” said Mrs Jackson, of Emma.
“Actually my whole family does, including my son Ben (20) and husband Garry — it’s a whole family thing.”
As well as devoting her life to surf lifesaving since 1980, the self-confessed “true clubbie” has worked for Education Queensland for 26 years, her most recent position being deputy principal at Elanora State High School.
“I got involved in 1980 in Ellis Beach in Cairns,” she said. “I was part of the swimming club and a few of the parents joined their kids up all together.
“The reason we moved to the Gold Coast seven years ago was so our family could join a bigger lifesaving community.”
When she’s not coaching or officiating surf sports at BMD Northcliffe Surf Club, she’s patrolling the beach as a lifesaver at Kurrawa Surf Life Saving Club.
Mrs Jackson has 137 lifesaving awards under her cap in lifesaving, surf sports, officiating, education and junior activities.
She has been a trainer and assessor for more than 30 years and a coach for 20, and she began patrolling Queensland beaches in 1983, something she continues to love to this day.In her younger years she was a professional lifeguard and began officiating at surf sport carnivals in 1989.
She was the team manager of her first Australian lifesaving team in 2015.
According to Volunteering Queensland, Mrs Jackson epitomises the spirit of lifesaving by helping others in need.
“She keeps our beaches safe as an active patrolling member and gives her time to teach others how to save lives,” it says.
“She has directly instructed over 130 people in VET first aid courses in the past six months as well as delivering advanced resuscitation, bronze medallion and surf rescue certificate courses in that time.
“She wears her red and yellow patrol gear with pride and takes her patrols in the red and yellow flags professionally and seriously. She prefers to be proactive and talk to the beach goers before they get in any difficulties but has carried out countless rescues and first aid treatments over the years.
“Building better communities is Surf Life Saving Australia’s third mission and that is Mrs Jackson’s ultimate achievement.”
The humble nominee said the lifesaving community had helped her with her workplace mental health and everyone was there to give back.
“I truly get a lot more than I give, doing what I do gives me so much energy.”
Here’s cheers to the Gold Coast’s volunteers
May 24, 2020
VOLUNTEERS are continuing to help the most at risk generation on the Gold Coast during COVID-19.
Since being hit by the pandemic, volunteers across the Gold Coast have supported those in need.
Simple tasks like shopping or seeing grandchildren have become unsafe for the elderly, so the Benevolent Society launched the Volunteer Carer Connect on July 1 to provide support for older people caring for others.
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Manager of Childcare and Family Services Gold Coast Alana Laundy said the program is using the same structure the Benevolent Society has delivered with other services on the Coast for a decade.
“The volunteers help through virtual means or face-to-face depending on what the clients wants,” she said.
“We currently have around 15 volunteers but not many clients, so it’d be great to increase those numbers.”
Palm Beach retiree and avid golfer Bryan Barker also has been helping the elderly, by providing them transport across the Gold Coast.
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Planning to drive for Volunteering Gold Coast (VGC) or two years, four years later he’s on the road twice a week.
The former community health planner for the Gold Coast City Council said his parents were no longer alive for him to care for so he wanted to help other people’s parents.
“Some clients say to us that if it wasn’t for our service they wouldn’t get to speak to anyone that day,” he said.
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“There’s so many isolated people in the Gold Coast, and if I can do something to help that then I will.
“These people are in the later stages of their life but are still part of the fabric of our community and they contribute just by being who they are.”
Volunteers helping the eldest generation dates back to when the pandemic first hit the Gold Coast and Meals on Wheels delivered free toilet paper to the elderly.
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