Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I was going through some memorabilia and came across the list of finalists for the Jaycees Five Outstanding Young Australians in Western Australia for 1985. I was one of the finalists, though not one of the five eventually chosen. 

Because I can find nothing about this event anywhere on the internet I thought I’d add scanned images of the program we got on the night the awards were presented. In addition to the images, I’ve also listed all the text from this program so that it is searchable for future researchers, and added extra information about some of the nominees (in square brackets), where known.

Cover page

Text:

1985 Five Outstanding Young Australians in Western Australia

Co-ordinated by: Mandurah Jaycees

Sponsored by: Amatil Limited

Presented at: Bussell Motor Hotel, Bunbury, Saturday 31st August, 1985 [NOTE: The Bussell Hotel in Bunbury was destroyed by a fire in 2002 and was replaced by what is now known as the Parks Tavern] 

Inside: list of nominees

Those in bold were the ones I ticked in the list back in 1985, and I assume they were the five winners for that year. Click the image to view it larger.

• Christine Bailey — for her teaching and community work
• Christine Barbara — for her contribution to the development of children
• John Bond — for his religious leadership and community work 
• Rhonda Bracey — for her contribution to youth education [that’s me!]
• Peter Clarke — for his technological contribution
• Rodney Congdon — for his courage and perseverance in overcoming his disabilities [October 2020: a Google search 2020 showed he worked for the Activ Foundation for more than 35 years] 
• David Couch — for his contribution to youth and community
• Bradley Delavale — for his contribution to sport
• Paul Dixon — for his contribution in drama and the arts
• Gavan Forster — for his contribution to the building industry and community work [October 2020: he was Director of Housing for the Master Builders Association of WA for many years]
• John Fussell — for his contributions to swimming and training of asthmatics [October 2020: a Google search indicated he passed away in January 2015 during a competitive swimming event]
• Lee Hennessy — for her voluntary community work
• Gail Jamieson — for her contribution for the care and development of young children
• Jeff Leisk — for his contribution to sport [October 2020: was a motorcycling and racing competitor and champion at state, national and international levels, and a motorcycling hall-of-famer]
• Chris Lewis — for his contribution to sport [October 2020: champion Australian Rules Footballer, playing in the inaugural West Coast Eagles team for 215 games]
• Brian Manning — for his voluntary community work
• Barry Marshall — for his contribution to medical research [October 2020: went on to win a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2005 for his groundbreaking work in discovering the causes of stomach ulcers; has a library named after him at the University of Western Australia (formerly the Science Library)]
• Monica McGhie — for her courage in overcoming her disability and the promotion of the the cause of the disabled [October 2020: mouth artist; continues to fight for the rights of the disabled; born without arms or legs as a result of thalidomide]
• Jane McGibbon — for her outstanding contribution to the care and training of the handicapped
• Frank Parleviet [should be Parlevliet?] — for his overall balanced lifestyle and community work
• Glenda Pickersgill — for her contribution to sport
• Lyn Russell — for her contribution to adult training and education
• Susan Ryan — for her community work and work with the underprivileged
• Rosemary Sambo — for her contribution to sport
• Bronwen Scott — for her contribution to surf lifesaving
• Enzo Sirna — for his community work [October 2020: CEO of Corporate Services / Director of the National Trust of WA]
• Jenny Werner — for her outstanding contribution to deaf and blind work
• Ronald Williams — for his contribution to sport.

NOTE: These descriptions and spelling are verbatim and reflect the words used at the time. 

I’ve had Ted, my teddy bear, all my life (or very close to it; pictures of me with Ted when I was an infant: https://rhondabracey.com/2010/03/14/i-found-my-bear/). For the last couple of decades he has sat on a shelf looking a little the worse for wear. His arms, legs, and neck were quite floppy where the wood wool that was used to stuff him oh-so-long-ago had either compressed or disintegrated completely.

I’ve been watching the UK TV show ‘The Repair Shop’ for a while now, and the two teddy bear restorers there have done such wonderful work, giving life back to tired-looking (and in some cases, almost wrecked) bears, that I decided I should really get Ted rejuvenated as well. I found two teddy bear restorer places in Perth, but only one responded to my enquiry via their online form within a few hours (BTW, several months later and I still haven’t heard from the other one!). So after sending Brigit a picture of Ted, she gave me an approximate quote and we arranged a time for me to come to Perth to drop him off. I was impressed with some of the website photos of the restorations she’d done, and after meeting her I felt comfortable leaving Ted with her for the month or so before she could get to him.

A few weeks later and he was fixed (including a new growler!). My sister brought him down to my Dad’s 90th birthday and gave him back to me (though she did say he was so handsome she might keep him — some sibling rivalries never die!). Ted can now sit up on his own and Brigit added a lovely black bow giving him a certain extra charm.

He was always a handsome and kindly bear. Now he is even more so.

For those in Western Australia, he went to Brigit at https://www.brigitbears.com/. The cost for the restoration was around $100 and the growler was another $30, which I thought was a small price to pay to give him many more decades of life.

Before

After