10
Jan
At the End-of-Year festivities, jointly held by the Friends and the National Arboretum Canberra on 13 December, Jocelyn Plovits was presented with the Volunteer of the Year Award for 2021. In honouring Jocelyn’s commitment to the Arboretum, Scott Saddler, AM, Executive Branch Manager, noted that for the past seven years, Jocelyn has planned the winter Warm Trees event, seeking diplomatic sponsorship matched to a specific Arboretum forest, and organised a team of helpers to knit, crochet, stitch and assemble woollen scarves which are then affixed to various forests to bring colour and a smile during Canberra’s winter days. Planning also includes setting up community days during school holidays for kids and carers to visit the Village Centre to (learn to) knit, promotion to be prepared, and community and diplomatic help for the event to be procured.
In addition to this, Jocelyn took on the supervisory role in producing a second edition of The Arboretum Book, an updated version of the 2014 publication. This has necessitated a huge effort to bring the updating of each of the 100 forests, plus forewords, plus images together, liaising with the Review Team, the NAC and designer, resulting in a glossy new edition being launched within budget and on schedule.
Just one of these two projects involves a great deal of energy and commitment through countless hours, but two projects would comprise a full-time commitment for a retired person. Such is Jocelyn’s commitment that she has completed both these iconic projects concurrently.
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