Honour for service puts volunteers in spotlight

The unsung heroes of Wairarapa sport are about to be recognised.
One of two new categories for the Wairarapa Times-Age sports awards for 2009-10 is the Lifetime Achievement Award. Nominees will be people who have given their time voluntarily over a long number of years to advance the cause of their particular sport (or sports) in the Wairarapa region.
Many of these folk seldom make the headlines because of two factors; much of their work is done behind the scenes and they purposely shun the spotlight. Their reward is providing the opportunity for others to shine, they want nothing more than that.
There are those, of course, whose very exploits in either a competitive and administrative sense (or both) ensure their names are prominent in the media on a regular basis, whether they like it or not. Their contribution is also immense.
Such is the criteria for the Lifetime Achievement Award, in fact, that every sporting organisation operating in the Wairarapa has to have at least one worthy nominee, and probably more. Therefore the list of nominations should be huge.
The second new category is the Youth Sports Personality of the Year which has been inaugurated to provide secondary school pupils with their own award rather than being part of the Junior Sports Personality of the Year which is now confined to pupils of primary and intermediate schools.
Performances counting towards those two awards had to be recorded between April 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010, same as for the Senior Sports Personality, Sports Team of the Year and Sports Club of the Year. There is no such timeline, however, for the Sports Administrator of the Year which very properly recognises efforts made over many years.
Nomination forms for the 2009-10 awards will be appearing in the Times-Age through until next Monday with public voting _ again through a form published in the Times-Age _ starting four days later.
Three finalists will be selected for each category and the winners will be announced at a special function to held at the Copthorne Hotel and Resort Solway Park complex in Masterton on Wednesday, May 12.