Administrator of the Year
There were six nominations for this award this year and each of the nominees have made and continue to make a significant contribution to the administration of our sport. The nominees were Sally Garelja, Lynne Hodgson, Vicki Smith, Alan Greenstreet, Karen Smith and Jamie Adams-Campbell. The Administrator of the Year went to Jamie Adams-Campbell, however AIDC would like to acknowledge and thank Sally who was our club nominee.
Sally Garelja (AIDC) has been involved with the Allegro Ice Dance committee since 2013, possibly joining in 2010 when she joined Icy Chicks, she is what we call “an original” and in 2015 was elected as Club Treasurer taking on the role with minimal accounting experience and no MYOB experience. Sally was instrumental in setting up the Tier 4 Performance Reports for the club ensuring that everything balanced at year end. Over the past couple of years with the growth of the club she has had to handle a huge amount of transactions due to increased membership and fundraising activities. Sally has also taken on the role of TC Secretary, never complaining and always with a smile on her face. During the Allegro Artistic Championships Sally is never far from the door with her endless supplies of strawberries and the profits from the sales of these strawberries are donated to the club. She is also one of the Club representatives on the North Island Committee since 2017 and since coming on to the NI committee has organised the medals for the Championships. Sally is a beautifully friendly person to work with and is one of those people who has stepped up to help the club.
Sportsperson of the Year
Four people were nominated for this award. The nominees were Tracy Hipkiss, Vanessa Preston, Emilia Crooks and Sheryl Squier. The Sportsperson of the Year went to Emilia Crooks, however AIDC would like to acknowledge and thank Tracy who was our club nominee.
Tracy Hipkiss (AIDC) is heavily involved in all areas of skating, from taking development classes for skate school, developing solo skaters and involvement with the four synchronized skating teams for Allegro. Tracy spends many hours going above and beyond to ensure skaters feel supported and taken care of, with nothing asked in return. The most recent example of this, at North island Champ’s she supported many skaters coached by others on and off the ice as their coach was away. Tracy wanted to make sure all skaters were comfortable for the competition and put their needs first. Tracy is an ambassador for the sport with her hard work and dedication noted by many. Not only is she a talented skater herself, but she has a warm and caring nature which our junior skaters are drawn to and they always want to spend time with her on the ice. Tracy welcomes this and is constantly encouraging their skating and love of the sport.
The Allchurch Shield
The Shield is named after Sandy Allchurch and is awarded to the club that gets the highest number of points, based on where their members place in the various grades, at our New Zealand National and Adult Skating Championships. Sandy Allchurch was actively involved in the Association for many years and was at the inaugural meeting in June 1937 of what was, until 2011, the New Zealand Ice Skating Association. Sandy was also Patron for our Association for many years and was very dedicated to supporting ice skating. Being able to present this award each year is a rather special acknowledgement to Sandy and the contribution that he, and others like him, have made to our sport.
The Allchurch Shield was won by Auckland Ice Figure Skating Club – congratulations.
The summary of the Allchurch Shield points:
Auckland Ice Figure Skating Club (AIFSC) - 44
Dunedin Ice Skating Club (DISC) - 25
Centaurus Ice Skating Club (CISC) - 21
Glenburn Figure Skating Club (GFSC) - 19
Ice Sports Southland (ISS) - 17
West Auckland Ice Skating Club (WAISC) - 15
Allegro Ice Dance Club (AIDC) - 13
Canterbury Masters Figure Skating Club (CMFSC) - 12
Queenstown Ice Skating Club (QISC) - 0
Alexandra Ice Skating Club (AISC) - 0
