JourneyOnline
Bernie Scobie, a long-time member of Paradise Point Uniting Church on the Gold Coast, was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the Australia Day 2013 Honours List. The award was made for service to the community through youth and charitable organisations.
The new recipient is quick to point out he would never would have received the prestigious honour without the support of his wife Joy, who is the Pastoral Care Coordinator at Paradise Point Uniting Church.
Mr Scobie was wheelchair-bound after a workplace accident in 1985. He trialed a spinal stimulator, which he now has on one side of his chest to help him walk and a morphine pump on the other side to help pain relief.
Since his accident, Bernie Scobie has become a life member of the Endeavour Foundation, where he works with intellectually disabled people. He is also chairman of Gold Coast North Youth Centre and a life member of Lions International.
He received an Australia Day Community Service Award in 2009 and Queensland Day Awards in 2004 and 2006.
A Labrador housing development was named "Bernie Scobie Place" in his honour in 2007.
Photo : Bernie and Joy Scobie with Rev Col Shenfield from Paradise Point Uniting Church.
