Carmela McHardy was a staunch West Auckland Community worker and supporter of art and artists, the late Carmela McHardy organised the Secondary Schools Arts Awards some years ago and was a valued member of the Western Districts Community Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge her wonderful contribution by way of the $500 Carmela McHardy Merit award.
She was a dedicated artistic florist and was just starting to branch out into child and family counselling through Barnardos a couple of years prior to her death.
Carmela, a former Mayoress of Waitakere City, was a talented woman who quietly espoused women's rights and children's welfare. She contributed to the artistic and cultural aspects of West Auckland life in many ways.
As part of her community work she was founder of the West Auckland Women's Refuge and grew from that to be an unpaid adviser to the Government for that movement which now provides a chain of women's refuges throughout New Zealand. She also served as local and South pacific/Asia President of Soroptimist International and took great delight in the fact that as a mere Kiwi she was able to achieve in 9 months the establishment of its Regional Headquarters in debt free premises in Sydney, much to the chagrin of her Australian counterparts who had been trying to do this for 20 years without success.
She served for many years as Chairperson of the Board of Governors of our Foundation during• which time she promoted a West Auckland Secondary School Art Competition and inspired the Foundation to sponsor less fortunate West Auckland children in their educational ambitions.
Her own artistic talents were expressed through her love of gardening and floral decoration. She was highly regarded for this last• talent and which was expressed• through her engagement to decorate the St James Theatre in Auckland for the Royal Command Performance held for Queen Elizabeth II in 1981 and for the world conferences in New Zealand of several large international corporations.
In the 1980's Carmela also helped to establish the Waitakere Sports Trust, again a fledgling project which has provided the catalyst for Sports Trusts in every major region of New Zealand. It is now known locally as Sport Waitakere.
Carmela was awarded the Queen's suffragette Medal for community services in 1996. She died in 2006 leaving 6 daughters and 14 grandchildren.
