Posthumous medals awarded

Deanne Arrowsmith and daughter Emily with Allen Chong's posthumous medals of Civil Defence service. Photo / Supplied

A devotion to doing his bit as a volunteer with the Napier City Council Civil Defence Emergency Management team has seen Allen Chong receive Community Service and Long Term Service medals - posthumously.

His daughter Deanne Arrowsmith stepped forward to receive the medals at a special ceremony staged at the MTG last week.

Napier Emergency Management officer Marcus Hayes-Jones was full of praise for what Mr Chong delivered to the whole Civil Defence front over his 26 years of service.

Even while suffering from ill health Mr Chong would turn out for most training and deployment events with the attitude of "oh well you have to give it a go regardless".

Mr Chong specialised in radio communications and took part in a number of exercises as well as continual training which led to numerous NZQA qualifications. Mr Hayes-Jones said the highlight for Mr Chong had been the completion of the mobile Emergency Operations Centre which was a trailer-borne radio communications facility.

"Allen's contribution was amazing and he once said he got so much out of volunteering and was able to expand his skill set - Allen was part of the volunteer family and is missed."

His daughter said the family were "humbled" by the presentation and were honoured that his devotion and contributions to the specialist management team had been recognised in that way.

Others who received Community Service Awards and five and 25-year service medals were Barbara Koller, Paula Nagy, Odell Reynolds, Harry Verwey, Merrin Fairless, Peter Ide and Lyn Bryant.