Do you have any idea how difficult it is to award the ALVA President with ALVA Honours without her knowledge. To say that the ALVA Girls are great at the “cone of silence” is an understatement. Pat organised Miss Kaye to have the trophy made. She spoke with Lady Joan and asked her to be the presenter and she contacted Lisa and I and told us of her plan. Of course, we thought this was an exceptional idea. Susie has been ALVA President for 15 years and Pat, along with many of the others, (once they found out) all agreed this was a deserving award. However, we had to hatch a plan to sneak it into the program without the Queen Bee’s knowledge.
Susie presented the Garvan Institute with a donation from ALVA and it was here that we saw our opening. As the photo was being taken of Susie, Pat and the Garvan ladies, Donna and Maura, I very quickly took the microphone from Susie, snuck passed her and handed it to Pat. Lisa ran interference with Susie and it was Pat’s turn to surprise. As much to Susie chagrin, it was Pat who then awarded her with the ALVA Honours. All this time knowing it has been decided we were not going to present it to anyone this year as ALVA was to be the recipient. Little did she know that Miss Kaye was organising the trophy and Lisa and I were to distract her from focusing on this award.
Please note: Lisa and I are very good at keeping a Cone of Silence. The senior executive (minus Susie) thought 15 years of Presidency deserved an ALVA Honours Award. Pat organised with Lady Joan to do the citation. Below are the kind words that Lady Joan shared with us on the day:
The lady we are presenting with ALVA Honours today has served on committee first in 1990 and in that year she was assistant to the treasurer Olive Kermond. We know she has received MO Awards and has had much success in a variety of careers from performance and production to presenting fashion. With ALVA she:
- Served on committee from 1993 – 1996
- Secretary to the house, investments and benevolent committee 1996. 2000 – 2003
- ALVA Secretary and ALVA Golden Girl Recipient 2003
- Chairperson of Benevolent and Investments committee 2004 – 2019
- ALVA Royal Bee 2004
- ALVA Queen Bee 2005 – 2019
Congratulations to our recipient of the ALVA Honours Award for our 40th year, Susie Smither.
