Helping the community is part of Roy Opie's makeup

Roy Opie. Photo / Rosalie Willis

If you've driven past the Ocean Road Community Centre in Paraparaumu Beach, you would have noticed a lot of construction going on.

Roy Opie, in his mid-70s, has volunteered his time to spearhead a project of creating an extension to the centre.

Giving back to the community is a big part of what makes Roy tick, and it hasn't gone unrecognised.

Roy, from Otaihanga, has been awarded a Queen's Service Medal in the Queen's Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours List for services to the community.

He was in the South Island with his wife Meryl when he heard his name had been put forward for the medal.

"I was in a bit of a state of shock to be honest.

"Then I read it, and that the Queen had to approve it, and it was just too much.

"I said to Meryl that we'd have a look at it when we got home to Kāpiti because they wanted to know if I would accept it or not.

"We came home and told them that we would accept it."

Roy felt the medal was representative of "other people that have helped me".

"I'm very proud.

"Not many chippies get these sort of things."

He made special mention of Meryl.

"I've got a lovely wife who has had to put up with me not being home.

"There has always been another person in the picture and that is my wife.

"She's been a great support in helping the community too."

Roy remembers one of his first volunteer jobs was when he was a building apprentice in Waikanae.

"The boss said 'will you go down after work and finish off the changing sheds at the Waikanae Swimming Pool?'

"So I put my hand up, and some others did, and we did a bit of work to get it completed.

"That was back in the late 1960s and it has been ongoing ever since."

One of his biggest projects was a $500,000 revamp of the flood-damaged Otaihanga Boating Club, to which he has a strong connection - he was a former vice commodore of the club.

Other projects include overseeing the construction of the Kāpiti Primary School pool and building the foundations for the Paraparaumu Rugby Club.

He joined the Kāpiti Rotary Club in 1978 and was president in the early 1980s.

"Joining the Kāpiti Rotary Club opened up so many doors and it made projects so much easier and it was good for my business too."

Through Rotary he chaired the committee that oversaw the construction of a hall for the Kāpiti Senior Citizens Association in 1987.

The hall, now the Ocean Road Community Centre and which he's working on building an annex for, has been used by many community groups over the years.

Among many other things, Roy has helped raise funds for the upgrade of the Wellington Free Ambulance Station in Paraparaumu and has contributed to projects for the RSA and Club Vista.