MODERN life is hectic. Between working, keeping a roof over your head and feeding a family, most find little time to support the huge number of local charities and voluntary groups.
Then there is Wivenhoe’s Bonnie Hill, who has just been awarded an MBE for her years spent tirelessly volunteering.
Bonnie 61, juggled running a small business for a generation with helping more than a dozen organisations – most notably the Girl Guides.
Recently retired, she now has a little more time on her hands, not that she’s taking it easy. She helps out at the guides, sentences criminals as a magistrate in Colchester, and, as his deputy, represents the Lord Lieutenant of Essex at civic events.
Then there are roles with the Essex Women’s Advisory Group, the Colchester Mayor’s charity fund, Inner Wheel Club of Colchester Trinity, Grassroots, the Weeley & Little Clacton Royal British Legion branch, Wivenhoe Scout & Guide Hall, Clacton Sea Scouts and Wivenhoe’s St Mary’s Church parochial church council.
She has also spent time with Tendring Citizens’ Advice Bureau, the Rotaract Club of Colchester and the parents associations of Colchester Boys High and the Royal Hospital School.
Oh, and Bonnie will soon be representing the nation as an Essex Olympic Ambassador, greeting visitors at Stansted Airport . She laughed: “I think I’ve actually reached capacity now. I really don’t think I can take on much more! I shall be in my wheelchair directing the traffic, I imagine.”
So how does she do it?
She says it’s helped that she worked as a PA for the president of major American firm, Dun & Bradstreet.
At her Colchester Road home, she tells stories of how he rang from another country at 3am because he couldn’t refill his pen, or the time he dumped his waste disposal unit on her desk because he couldn’t figure out why it was broken.
Her perennially upbeat attitude, and determination to lead by example, has carried her the rest of the way.
“I’m more or less like this all the time,” she says with an ever-present smile. “The people I used to commute with at 6.30am saw this demeanour. I used to get them making platted pieces of wool for my Guide unit.”
Bonnie’s association with the Guides began aged ten, when she joined the 2nd Shoeburyness Guides.
By the time she was 17, her leader was so ill, she effectively ran meetings and took over officially shortly after her 18th birthday. She continued her involvement when she moved to Wivenhoe 40 years ago with husband, Peter, and a lifetime in the organisation culminated in Bonnie’s appointment in 2006 as Girl Guiding Essex North East County Commissioner – putting her in charge of 7,000 people.
After five years, she stood down from that role, but still helps out with training.
She said: “We have moved with the times, so Girl Guiding is still relevant to girls today. Because of that, it’s so popular.” In 1985, Bonnie had to leave her job in London when she gave birth to eldest son, Alex. She set up a business offering secretarial services and gradually took on more and more jobs, ranging from writing up the minutes for her local church to helping small charities get grants.
Last month, Bonnie said she was taken by surprise at being named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her “services to the community in Essex”.
Her insistence the award should be shared by her family – husband Peter and sons Alex and Christian – and everyone she has worked with is typically modest.
She said: “My family has been incredible. My husband has been there every step, and my two sons have gone without dinner, because I’ve been off doing something else for someone else.”
So what was it like getting her MBE? “Being singled out I find very strange.” For Bonnie, having fun is key: “That’s the secret to life. Get your giggle muscles going.”
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