One for the record books: Angie Tomkinson named Tailem Bend citizen of the year
The netball club record-keeper and historian has been recognised with a Coorong district Australia Day award.
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You’ll be sure to run into Angie Tomkinson wherever you go in Tailem Bend.
Outside her work at the primary school and community library, she has kept records for the netball club, videoed Music Hall performances, built prosthetic hands with the Rotary Club and, for the past three years, helped the local history group get up and running.
The community to which she has given so much gave something back on Australia Day this year: Tailem Bend’s 2021 citizen of the year award.
Rotarian Sara Fensak said Ms Tomkinson “epitomises what it means to be a contributor to the community without feeling the need for recognition or fanfare”.
Councillor Brenton Qualmann suggested that “her willingness to go the extra mile for the community a quite understated way is to be admired”.
The woman of the hour thanked her late parents, her family and everyone she had worked with over the years.
“It’s a humbling experience to be acknowledged in a community that has a lot of people giving so much,” she said.
“It’s not just one person that makes a difference in the community.
“It takes a village to get things achieved, and the village behind me is you.”
About 120 people attended the Australia Day celebration, which was shifted inside Tailem Bend Town Hall as rain clouds circled uncertainly overhead.
Guests also heard from dragon boat racer and cancer survivor Lynn Hill before enjoying a lunch served by the Rotary Club of Tailem Bend.
John Harvey and Noel and Karen Kneebone accompanied the gathering with music from a flag-strewn stage.
Disclosure: The author enjoyed lunch as a guest of the Rotary Club of Tailem Bend.
