By LIA SPENCER
A YOUNG woman with drive and passion for her work has received a prestigious award by the Rotary Club of Narre Warren.
Ruby Ginnivan, a 24-year-old apprentice electrician, is the first female to receive the Norm Barr Award, which was presented at a Rotary meeting on Wednesday, 1 May.
The Cowes teenager was nominated by the staff at Chisholm Tafe in Berwick to receive the award, which has been handed out by the Rotary Club of Narre Warren for more than 15 years.
The award is named after Norman John Barr, who died in 1994 from cancer.
Mr Barr, who served an apprenticeship as an electrical mechanic before joining and becoming the managing director a family business, was a member of the Rotary Club of Narre Warren and a Paul Harris Fellow.
Through his years in Rotary, he hosted several exchange students, was involved in many worthwhile causes and was dedicated to his community.
His son, James Barr, spoke at the meeting at Fountain Gate Hotel last week and recalled the time his father and his father’s cousin completed the task of producing the Roll of Honour, a series of bronze plaques that hang in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
“Working nights and weekends, they individually checked every one of the 102,000 names of the dead from all military campaign in which we were involved,” James said.
“It wasn’t that (Norm) was pedantic, it was because he felt that the war dead and their families deserved a memorial recording their ultimate sacrifice, without the error of someone stuffing up the spelling of their names.”
Robert Cooke, senior educator at the Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications Department at Chisholm Tafe, said Ruby was a fitting choice for the prestigious award.
“Ruby’s dedicated and shows what she wants,” he said.
“She has a positive attitude, dedication and stamina.”
