Queen's Birthday Honours: Pambula's Jim Clark dedicated to 'betterment of others'

Mr Clark has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours List, for "service to youth, and the the community".

He said volunteer work was just as beneficial for him as is was for those he serves.

"You get a lot of benefits from it and you get to know people in your community really quickly," he said.

QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY HONOURS

Mr Clark said all of the work he'd done over the years would not have been possible without the support of his wife Nancy.

"She's as much a part of all of this as I am and she's always been there for me whenever I turned around. I couldn't have done it all without her," he said.

Mr Clark said the common thing volunteers discovered when getting involved in a local community group or organisation, was the theme of community connectedness.

"When we were new to the area, the best introduction to Pambula was the voluntary work, where we were up front meeting people and getting to know them," he said.

"Some people can move into a town and it can be years before they know people - we were here only months and we met lots of people."

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Mr Clark began his commitment to volunteer roles in 1982 when he joined Apex, a volunteer community service organisation dedicated to young people, in Ararat, Victoria.

Three years later Jim and Nancy moved to Merimbula, where he joined the Merimbula Apex branch and became the branch's president from 1986 to 1987.

During Mr Clark's seven years at Merimbula Apex, he became involved in multiple areas of the community from supporting the Merimbula Jazz Festival to helping create the barbecue area and facilities at Bar Beach.

In 1990 he supported the Nyngan flood relief effort by collecting donated furniture across the Valley, and then driving it it up Nyngan himself ion his nursery truck to help those in need.

Mr Clark was also involved in supporting The Apex Chalet, dubbed the Magic Castle, for underprivileged children, at Kosciuszko National Park, helping out with regular donations of firewood and assistance with maintenance.

From 1988 to 1995 Mr Clark was busy giving free swimming lessons to Merimbula locals at the South Haven Pool and getting involved in the construction of the original Pambula Pool.

Around that time he and his wife also bought the Sapphire Coast Nursery, which they ran from 1990 to 2015. Over the years, Jim and Nancy donated numerous plants to the beautification of the main street of Pambula and Eden.

In 1992 Mr Clark also joined the Merimbula Scouts, which he said was "really fun" as he took great joy in encouraging kids to get involved in outdoor activities.

"The benefits came in seeing these kids getting on with their lives and doing things out there and being part of helping them was really rewarding," he said.

READ ALSO: Merimbula Scouts say farewell to leader Jim Clark after 29 years

Mr Clark has had numerous roles with Scouting. He started as trainee Scout Leader and progressed to Leader and he was the Group Leader for 1st Merimbula from 2018 until 2021.

He has also received nine Scout awards including service decorations for his lengthy service to the orgnanisation.

Former secretary for Merimbula Scouts Kerry Bourke said he was the one to nominate Mr Clark for the OAM and said he was delighted he had been selected, saying "it couldn't have happened to a better bloke".

"Jim has given his life for the betterment of others, he and Nancy are rock solid good people," Mr Bourke said.

Mr Clark on the other hand remained very humble about his OAM, saying that he had very nearly refused, but had been urged by his family and close friends to accept the nomination.

"I had to think about it for quite a while actually, mainly because I seemed to think that I wasn't worthy of it," he said.

"You see I wasn't doing this for any sort of recognition, I simply found a lot of enjoyment out of doing what I was doing."

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Mr Clark said he found volunteering a "rewarding" pursuit and that in his case it had been greatly beneficial to developing friendships in the Valley and to his wellbeing overall.

"It helps a lot with mental health as well because not only have you got something to do but you're surrounded by like minded people which creates a good environment," he said.

"You get a lot more back than what you put in."