Bridgetown man and dedicated community volunteer Adrian Elder was awarded the Premier’s Australia Day Active Citizen Award for Bridgetown-Greenbushes.
Born and bred in Bridgetown, Mr Elder has always held a tremendous loyalty for the town and the welfare of its people.
Mr Elder has the reputation among the people who know him well as a person who will always give a hand to any person or organisation that may need help.
The list of organisations he has been involved with over the years is long and impressive.
He is a life member with the Bridgetown Theatre with more than 25 years involvement with acting, back stage and lighting and sound technology.
He is a Committee member and sometime chair of the Bridgetown Hospital Board, as well as Chair of the Blues at Bridgetown Committee and a volunteer member.
He is a long-time member of the Bridgetown Agricultural Society, has been their Vice President and still takes on the job of compere for the present day shows.
He is a member of the Bridgetown Historical Society as well as a volunteer at Bridgedale House.
For the past 20 years Mr Elder has given his time as JP and Magistrate for the area and, while this takes a lot of his time, he is constantly upgrading his knowledge and skills in this area.
Mr Elder has recently been involved in fund raising for the new extension at St John of God Hospital in Bunbury.
Mr Elder said he loves living in Bridgetown and couldn’t think of living anywhere else.
“I’ve been very involved with the local community all my life,” he said. “I can still remember my first experience with the theatre when I was trained to be an usher by Heather Urquhart, and when you were trained by her, you stayed trained.
“The people here in Bridgetown are by and large pretty wonderful and I feel fortunate to have been associated with them,” Mr Elder said.
“My career with Telecom and Telstra for 35 years allowed me to meet so many people around Bridgetown, and they were always very nice people.
“I believe any community is what you put into it, and what you put in is always returned to you tenfold. I have certainly enjoyed my involvement with the town and its people.
“I appreciate receiving this acknowledgement for doing something which I enjoy, but I suspect there is an ulterior motive in that when a person receives an accolade such as this, it makes that person work even harder to live up to the reputation for the people who bestowed the accolade.”
The nominators in their summary stated Adrian Elder is a very caring man, very generous with his time and always willing to help organisations and individuals when needed.
Mr Elder is an extremely valuable member of our community and a very worthy recipient of this Award.
