When Olivia Hughes spoke with the Newcastle Herald in March 2020, her volunteering roster even then was longer than most adults. Four years later, it now includes a catalogue of community awards, the most recent of which came on August 8 when she was named one of two Hunter finalists in the Rotary Inspirational Women's Awards.
It's quite the roster for a young community leader who, as she spoke with the Herald again on Thursday, had only just finished one of her last HSC trial exams.
She admits that she sometimes prioritizes her community work over school (the award citation fittingly describes her as exemplifying "service above self"), but the work is as important to her as anything.
When she was barely older than 10 or 11, her closest friend Caprice died after a prolonged battle with terminal illness. It would have been a confronting moment for anyone so young, but Hughes emerged determined to help if she could.
"Losing Caprice was a big thing," she said, "Watching her go through what she went through with treatments and how upset she would be. When she passed away, I needed to do something to help kids like her."
Among her long list of programs and volunteering work, her favourite is her work with the Little Rippaz - a modified nippers program for children with disabilities - at her home surf club at Nobbys.
"I love it," she said. Watching the kids' faces when they learn something new or beat someone in a race is something that you can't experience anywhere else."
Hughes doesn't divide her week into hours between school, surfing, and volunteering for awards or recognition; she does it because she wants to give back to her community.
Deanna Faulks from the Upper Hunter village of Wingen shared a similar sentiment. On Thursday, between the countless kilometres she covers for the Rural Fire Service, she found a few minutes to take in the news that she had also been nominated.
"We do it because we want to be part of the solution," she said.
Faulks has been volunteering with the Rural Fire Service since 2015 and later became the service's risk planning coordinator, managing risk reduction for a patch of land stretching from Dubbo to Tamworth, including Mungindi, Gilgandra, and Aberdeen.
Her appointment as Operations Officer in the Coonamble Section 44 fires of 2023 marked a milestone for women's leadership in the RFS.
Still, she said, she makes time to get out on the truck as often as she can to continue to volunteer for the service she has given her professional career to.
"I think it's important to have not only women but people from all cultures and backgrounds involved in the service because there are any number of skills that people can bring to a brigade," she said. "We all have different ways of thinking and different skills it's important to have those in a volunteer or a brigade."
Jodie Harrison, the state's minister for women, said the 18 Rotary Inspirational Women's Awards showed the enormous contribution of women in both our urban and rural communities across NSW.
"Each and every finalist fully deserves recognition for the tireless and generous work they do in their communities. They are role models and a true inspiration. I congratulate them on their nomination," she said.
