Joyce Beck, Kaitangata, QSM, for services to the community
Mrs Joyce Beck has been Principal of Kaitangata Primary School in South Otago since 1990, and has focused on improving the wellbeing of children and families in the local area. She organises Strengthening Families meetings utilising input from a variety of organisations including Child, Youth and Family, Women’s Refuge, Police Youth Aid Officers and Health Camps to assist children and their families. She provides extra coaching for young people with reading difficulties outside of school hours and has successfully lobbied for a mobile dental health service for Kaitangata Primary School. She has supervised the planning and construction of a new gymnasium and hall for her school and organised the construction of the Kaitangata church. She is involved with the Black Gold Heritage Museum and was recently appointed as a Justice of the Peace. Mrs Beck is the initiator and current secretary of the Kaitangata and Districts Promotion Association, which won the South Otago Trust Power Volunteers Award.