A volunteer who’s trained more than 1,300 people in surf lifesaving, will be Cobar’s 2022 Australia Day ambassador.
Doug Hawkins has been a surf lifesaving volunteer for 20 years with the Coogee Beach Surf Life Saving Club helping to implement inclusive training programs and increase their community and member engagement.
Doug has also run programs to teach refugees and immigrants life-saving water safety skills, so they can safely participate in Australia’s beach culture.
Initially running the Nippers program at Coogee, Doug was the Director of Juniors for 13 years, and now oversees the Membership of Surf Life Saving Sydney.
He has also directed the Junior Development Program since 2003, covering 2,500 Nippers. and was instrumental in taking surf lifesaving overseas, to Israel, India and the Cook Islands.
Through this overseas work, Doug helped set up their lifesaving clubs, and shared his valua-ble knowledge of water and board rescue skills and CPR, that have helped save countless peo-ple from drowning.
In the 2019 surf lifesaving season alone, Doug volunteered over 820 hours, including 86 hours of beach patrols.
His selfless commitment has been awarded at all levels of surf lifesaving, and is an in-spiration to many.
