Giving Is Just The Norm
Norm and Topsy Gibbs with the 2006 Victorian Senior of the Year Award
Monash Bulletin - 17 October 2006
Giving Is Just The Norm
Long time Mt Waverley resident Norm Gibbs was named the 2006 Victorian Senior of the Year by Premier Steve Bracks at a ceremony at Government House last month.
Norm, also known as Zodo the clown, Santa and the Easter Bunny by countless numbers of local children over the decades, was acknowledged for his sixty years of community work.
Norm started his community service leading gym classes for children in Hughesdale soon after the end of World War II before moving on to work with teenagers by setting up the Tavern Youth Group in the late 1950s and the Zodiac Youth Club in the early 1970s. The Zodiac dances became very popular with as many as a thousand teenagers coming to see some famous and soon to be famous bands such as Skyhooks, Dragon, Mississippi (later known as Little River Band) and ACDC, who had their pay docked for playing a short set.
He worked as a Welfare Officer and Community Liaison Officer for around 16 years with Waverley Council and then as a Community Corrections Officer where he worked with juveniles and adults.
In this time with the Community Corrections Office, he was required to prepare pre-court reports. This meant going into people's homes where he would see examples of poverty that would inspire him to find ways to help. Being well networked, Norm would use his contacts with various community groups to try to organize assistance.
His roles as Zodo and Santa have seen him spread fun and Christmas spirit through hospitals, libraries, nursing homes and groups such as Very Special Kids.
He was also the inaugural winner of the Sir John Monash Community Award in 1998, in which Monash City Council recognises outstanding volunteer and community service.
Norm and his wife Topsy have been Mt Waverley residents for 48 years.
* Two other Monash residents were recognised in the Premier's awards, with Mt Waverley residents Marion MacKenzie and Dot Schmidt being awarded Senior Achiever Awards.
Published: 17 October 2006
[ Up: Monash Bulletin 17 October 2006 ]