Hitting the road with our heroes

COMMUNITY pride is at the heart of the Queen’s Baton Relay, which is now on the home straight to the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

COMMUNITY pride is at the heart of the Queen’s Baton Relay, which is now on the home straight to the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

Elite athletes will shine at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, but it’s Queensland’s unsung heroes who will steal the limelight during the Queen’s Baton Relay.

Having departed Buckingham Palace on March 13 last year, the Queen’s Baton has visited every nation and territory in the Commonwealth, carried with care by batonbearers who have one thing in common – bucketloads of community spirit.

Meet some of the QSuper members and proud Queenslanders among the 1800 Queensland runners who will carry the Queen's Baton with pride.

PAMELA CAWTHRAY (ABOVE, FAR RIGHT)

Community spirit doesn’t get more fervent than that of Pamela Cawthray. The 73-year-old is such a pillar of the Miriam Vale community in central Queensland, she was not nominated once but three times for the Queen’s Baton Relay.

“I could only accept one, and that was the one my sister submitted,” Pamela says.

“I was born and raised here in Miriam Vale, and I’m a firm believer in you only get out of anything what you put into it.”

Over the years, Pamela’s tireless volunteer work has seen the establishment of a community centre in the town, and new facilities for the golf club.

She spent 30 years working as a teacher’s aide at the Miriam Vale secondary school, helped out at church, tuckshop, the P&C association and pretty much any other organisation that needed a hand.

“It’s a very small community and if you’re involved in one thing, you’re involved in others,” Pamela says.

“I haven’t yet learned how to say no.”

Originally published as Hitting the road with our heroes