Pam Ellerman recalls she was about five years old when her parents Max and Joan Doherty first got her involved in the community.
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Then it was as a member of the Gould League - a now 114 year old organisation promoting environmental education.
In the years that followed the young Pam would often be seen helping out alongside her family at various happenings in the Blighty district, including pushing the raffle wheelbarrow at the Blighty Football Club games.
Her involvement in charity and community groups grew when she went away to school in Albury, coordinated through the school, but on her return to Deniliquin it was through joining such groups that Pam grew her friend and networking base.
What has come out of that is literally a lifetime of volunteerism and, this Australia Day, an Order of Australia Medal for “service to the community of Deniliquin”.
“When I got back to Deniliquin after school I joined everything, because I didn’t know anyone in Deni,” she said.
“To volunteer you don’t necessarily have to have the time, but you have to have the heart.”
With her community service spanning many decades, there are too many specific examples to list why Pam’s secret nominator put her forward for the honour.
But her citation specifically mentions her work with Deniliquin Community Group Inc, Murrumbidgee Primary Health Network, Naponda Hospital Auxiliary and its Community Store, United Hospital Auxiliaries of New South Wales Inc, Deniliquin Promotion Advisory Group, Deniliquin Local Health Advisory Committee, Women in Agriculture pilot and the Open Garden's Scheme.
“There are a number of famous quotes that really sum up why I do what I do,” Pam told the Pastoral Times.
“Ghandi said ‘The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others’ and Helen Keller said ‘Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much’.
“That quote from Helen Keller, in particular, is so true. There are so many who assist you, assist me, along the way.
“I have had fantastic support - from my husband Ashley and my family, including our daughter Bea and her family.
“After that, you pull the others along.
“My parents, and particularly my mother, were also very supportive and taught us to believe in ourselves.
“I am blessed in that way, with my family, and that freedom has allowed me to be who I am.
“Deniliquin has also been very generous to me, to allow me to do these things.
“So I share this honour with Ashley and everyone else along the way who has been involved and who have been so incredibly supportive.
“There is a new breed of young women coming through who do exceptional things - there’s alot of inspirational women around - and there is always something gorgeous going on in Deni people can get involved in.”
Pam said she is particularly proud of her work with Naponda, including helping to start the monthly Farmers’ Market and establish the Community Store in Napier St, Deniliquin.
“Naponda has certainly been a highlight.
“We have been able to assist so many women, so many people, develop their own businesses out of what we started.”
Pam became a member of the Naponda Hospital Auxiliary in 1989.
Her first executive role was as treasurer in 1991-1992. She also held that role from 2009-2010.
She followed up that role with a stint as president from 1993-1994, and sat in that top role again from 2000-2001 and 2019-2021.
She was secretary in 2003 and again from 2006-2008, and currently Pam is the group’s fundraising officer.
Pam was the founding manager of the Naponda Community Store, and is in the manager’s role again today.
She has coordinated the Farmers’ Market since 2011 and is also responsible for any of the group’s Naponda Fashion Parades.
Through her role with Naponda, Pam was made a life member of the United Hospital Auxiliaries in 2016, and is currently the regional representative for Murray with the United Hospital Auxiliaries of New South Wales Inc.
Pam’s passion for better health outcomes for her community also led to her involvement with Deni LHAC, which she chaired from 2012 to 2019, and the MHPN.
Pam chaired the MHPN, as well as its Border Sector Community Advisory Committee (2016-2019) and interdepartmental conferences committee.
She was a member of the MHPN Planning and Integration Committee from 2016 to 2019 and its Clinical Governance Committee from 2018 to 2019.
Founded in 2007, the Deniliquin Community Group is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for distributing funding grants from the Bendigo Bank to community organisations within our region.
Pam has been chair of the group since 2012, and was previously the group’s secretary and treasurer.
This OAM is not the first time Pam has been rewarded for her community efforts.
As well as being honoured by the individual organisations she has served over the years, she was named Murray Local Woman of the Year in 2016 and received a NSW Government Community Recognition Statement in 2020.
Despite acknowledging her list of achievements for the community is a long one, Pam still thought someone was playing a prank on her when she received the call to accept her nomination for an OAM.
“When they rang me I said ‘are you sure’ and ‘oh God, me!’.
“I am pretty humbled, but also very excited.
“I am not that fantastic really, but I would like to say thank you to whoever did nominate me.
“It does prove the accomplishments you put yourself into are worthwhile.”
Those thanks were echoed by Ashley, who sat alongside his wife as she spoke with the Pastoral Times.
“It is a worthy nomination; well deserved,” he said.