Chair of Dunsborough and Districts Progress Association Jacqui Happ an OAM Winner

Bringing community together is a vision for the Dunsborough and Districts Progress Association which is something current chair Jacquie Happ has been doing for 20 years. In recognition of a remarkable commitment to serving the community Mrs Happ has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal. This is not the first honour for Mrs Happ. In 2021 she was awarded the Community Citizen of the Year Award by the City of Busselton, and in 2014 she received the Premier’s Australia Day Active Citizenship Award. Mrs Happ possesses seemingly boundless energy for driving positive change and making a difference everywhere she goes. “I think I was inspired into community service by my Mum, who brought up five children and worked hard running a business,” she said. “I remember seeing Mum one evening backing library books. She was so tired but here she was giving back to the community.” Even during her high school years Mrs Happ could be found at the shopping centre collecting money for the Red Cross. Mrs Happ has been chair of the DDPA for 16 years, and involved with it for 20 years. It is the Dunsborough Arts Festival that Mrs Happ feels closest to as she has been involved since the very first event, and she took on running the event in the second year. Since the inception of the Dunsborough Arts Festival 22 years ago, Mrs Happ has worked hard to turn the small half-day event, into a three day, immersive experience of art and culture. Mrs Happ admits that she loves paperwork and administration and will gladly take on the boring tasks, so other volunteers can do the “fun stuff”. “I like to lead from the back room, so the volunteers will want to keep coming back to do the interesting things again,” Mrs Happ said. In 2010 Mrs Happ added the Sculpture By the Bay to the Arts Festival, that started at a grassroots level, but is now an important event for Dunsborough and the community. “I could really see the value in the arts festival, so over time we have expanded it to the event it has become now,” she said. The arts festival now includes an X-Factor style talent competition for Dunsborough’s young people between the ages of seven and 18. “For me having so many people talking about art, and seeing amazing young people taking part in the X Factor, this makes it all worthwhile,” she said.