Julie Bowater

It was an honour to present Julie Bowater with Brave Hearts on the Murray’s Silver Heart award for 2019.

Ever since Julie joined Brave Hearts some seven years ago her passion and dedication to Brave Hearts has been outstanding and unwavering. Julie wears her Brave Hearts logo and associated uniforms with pride and passionately promotes Brave Hearts at every opportunity. She constantly conveys empathy and has inspired many people with whom she engages in her various roles to keep going and believe in themselves.

Julie is a competent, active and greatly respected committee member of both Brave Hearts on the Murray Inc and Brave Hearts Dragon Boat Club and has been a skilled and respected Finance Officer of the latter for the past three years which has lightened the load of the Treasurer tremendously.

Julie never knows how to say no and is the first to put up her hand to organise, facilitate or assist in any Committee activity, BBQ, Fundraiser, working bee or any other Brave Heart activity. She is such a respected member and active volunteer of the Wig Library and Pamper Days and she considers nothing too difficult to attempt. In her own words, she’s always willing to “give it a go” and ultimately success follows.

Her hard work and diligent efforts are continually witnessed and highly valued in the Dragon Boat Club. As well as being a competitive paddling member of our club she also attained her level 3 Sweep accreditation which has been such an invaluable asset at regattas, proving her proficiency at all levels including the difficult 2km races in all weathers and prevailing conditions.

Sunday afternoons will often find Julie sweeping our important Leisure Paddling sessions constantly imparting love, kindness and encouragement to the attending paddlers, many of whom are cancer survivors, or have impaired physical abilities; new members or just love being out on the water with this great crew.

Julie’s excellent communication and organisational skills were instrumental in ensuring highly successful community and sporting Dragon Boat regattas when she was one of the hard-working Coordinators for two years.

Constantly looking for ways to create public awareness of Brave Hearts and our projects, Julie was instrumental in organising the Veolia cardboard and paper sponsorship which has been a significant financial benefit to our Dragon Boat club.

Thank you, Julie Bowater from the bottom of our hearts. You are simply amazing and so loved and appreciated by us all. Your dedication to our cause is exemplary and you are a constant reminder of our organisation’s values of courage, love and support. We are honoured to have you in our numbers, and thrilled to be able to recognise your unrelenting devotion and commitment, with a Silver Heart.