General News
1 January, 2025
BEST OF 2024: Hilda Newstead wins 2023 Publicity Officer Award
Gilgandra CWA Evening Branch vice-president and publicity officer, Hilda Newstead, won 'The Wagga Daily Advertiser Publicity Officers’ Award.
First published June 5, 2024.
Gilgandra Country Women’s Association (CWA) Evening Branch vice-president and publicity officer, Hilda Newstead, has won The Wagga Daily Advertiser Publicity Officers’ Award for her entry as Macquarie group publicity officer. The award was announced at the CWA 102nd annual general meeting in early May.
There were 10 entries this year and three runners-up: Anne McClellan, Grafton Branch; Colleen Wills, Quirindi Branch; and Julie Morrison, Riverina Group. The award is presented to a branch or group publicity officer for the collection of reports from January to December 2023 that best portray the ideals and activities of the CWA. It has been sponsored by ‘The Wagga Daily Advertiser’ since 1993 to encourage publicity officers to write articles for their local media.
This year, the CWA hosted guest speakers including the minister for women, seniors, and the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault, Jodie Harrison, and founder of charity Love your Sister and Gold Logie winner, Samuel Johnson OAM. Mrs. Newstead said both speakers were “passionate and amazing”.
Mr. Johnson has received national acknowledgement for his dedication to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of breast cancer after his sister Connie Johnson was diagnosed. In support of his worthy cause, the CWA donated $5000 as part of the proceedings.
Mrs. Newstead said it was “a wonderful surprise and exciting” to win the award, explaining that she took photos and wrote reports at every group and branch event she had attended during the past year. “It does take a long time to put the publicity book together, but I enjoy all the cutting and pasting,” she said. Mrs. Newstead previously won the award in 2009 and was highly commended in 2018.
Mrs. Newstead added in closing that she’d like to thank ‘The Gilgandra Weekly’ and its editor, Lucie Peart, for generously supporting the CWA in the paper.
