King’s Birthday Honours 2024: Robin Clarke receives King’s Service Medal for community work

Robin Clarke has received a King's Service Medal for her community service.

Robin Clarke couldn’t quite believe it when she was told she was going to receive a King’s Service Medal.

She felt as though there were other, more deserving people, and felt unworthy – but, despite that, she said she would respect the honour with pride.

Clarke, from Waikanae, is receiving the medal in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours for serving her community in various capacities since the 1970s.

There have been many highlights over the years.

One has been working with and helping Cambodian and Somali refugees, which she said was a great pleasure.

“I had huge admiration for their endurance and strength. Some still remain as good friends.”

As part of that work, she sponsored refugee families and helped them settle, accompanying them to appointments, supporting their creation of connections in the community, and regularly checking in with them.

Another highlight was working with intellectually disabled children, who she found “offered a depth of connection that was very moving”.

She also highlighted the work she did as a recreational therapist and an industrial chaplain with the elderly.

Most recently, she has been a driver for cancer patients, taking them from Kāpiti to Wellington, and Te Horo to Palmerston North, for treatment.

“Each trip often means at least a day’s commitment. People in their vulnerability have been inspiring to me.”

Clarke said while others before her had been equally generous in these areas, “I was humbled to be told that one patient in particular attributed my care and support of her to have been life-changing”.

That is not all she has achieved.

In 1972, as a member of a Palmerston North Save the Children Fund fundraising group, she instigated and solely ran a weekly neighbourhood vegetable stall from her carport and donated all the proceeds.

She was also a volunteer facilitator for the Heart Foundation’s “Stop Ourselves Smoking” campaign from 1995 to 1998, where she planned and tutored classes to help participants with smoking addiction.

From 2001 to 2003 she played a key role in catering the fortnightly meals held by local churches in Ōtaki for those seeking food and companionship, and she has hosted many meetings of prayer groups in Wellington and Waikanae since.