2025 Volunteer Christmas Celebration

5th December 2025

On Wednesday 3 December 2025 we hosted the annual GRAGM Volunteer Christmas Dinner, this year at the Gladstone Regional Art Gallery & Museum.

We began the evening with a local bus tour by Darryl Branthwaite from Gladstone Region Tours. Volunteers enjoyed a scenic trip around town, returning to GRAGM afterwards where we viewed the wonderful photos captured along the way. We then moved into the O’Connell Gallery—right in the centre of the art awards—for a traditional Australian Christmas dinner, surrounded by creativity and culture.

The night concluded with a presentation recognising and celebrating our wonderful volunteers with Cr McClintock and Cr Patrick presenting Volunteer certificates to each volunteer.

2025 Volunteer Milestones

The total number of hours generously contributed by our incredible volunteers in 2025 is 1478 hours!

We recognised the outstanding efforts of our volunteers who reached milestones in our volunteer rewards program this year, starting with the 100-hour milestone! Congratulations to Mark Munro, who was the first to reach this milestone in April, followed closely by Grahame Smith in May, then by Gayle Black in August, and finally Leanne Cole who reached it in September. Volunteers who reached this first milestone in our rewards program, were presented with a red “V” lapel pin, this looks great worn on the GRAGM Volunteer uniform and is a visible reminder to everyone, of your active involvement in the community.

Volunteers who reach the 200-hour milestone in our rewards program are presented with a beautifully engraved metal pen with the words ‘THANK YOU’.

Volunteers who reach the 300-hour milestone are presented with a $100 EFTPOS gift card.

We recognised the remarkable efforts of one of our volunteers, who has not only reached the 200-hour milestone…or the 300-hour milestone… but an extraordinary 400 hours, a new record for our rewards program since it began in 2023. Congratulations to Grahame Smith on this outstanding achievement. He was presented with the 200-hour milestone beautifully engraved metal pen with the words ‘THANK YOU’, and the 300-hour milestone $100 EFTPOS gift card.

We were excited to present our end of year prize to the volunteer who has contributed the most amount of hours in 2025, the winner is of course Grahame Smith with an impressive total of 462 hours! Grahame won an additional $100 EFTPOS gift card.

We took a moment to acknowledge our wonderful volunteer Mark, who has made an incredible contribution to GRAGM. These are a few words our Visitor and Volunteer Experience Officer Talia spoke on the night to thank him…

“Mark has been such a valued part of our team, especially through the work he’s done with school groups. The way he connected with the children during their excursions was truly special. Dressed in his uniform, he brought history to life — capturing their attention, sparking curiosity, and keeping them completely engaged from start to finish. He had such a natural way of sharing stories that made learning about the war both memorable and meaningful for every class that visited.

Beyond his work with school groups, Mark has also been a huge help to our exhibitions team. Whether he was helping Rebecca with installations, building mounts and shelves, or putting up whole exhibition walls on his own, Mark always did it with such precision and pride — and it always looked fantastic.

Mark, you’ve created so many beautiful memories here — for staff, volunteers, and visitors. We’re so grateful for everything you’ve done, and the spirit you’ve brought to GRAGM.

On behalf of all of us, we’d like to present you with this card, filled with lovely messages from the team.

We then thanked all our volunteers for being with us on the night, Visitor and Volunteer Experience Officer Crystal had this to say… “we hope you’ve had an enjoyable evening and shortly we’ll be serving desert and playing the slideshow of all your beautiful photography skills from the bus tour.

On behalf of the GRAGM Team we truly appreciate each and every one of you. Your ongoing support allows us to deliver the wonderful experiences and exhibitions that enrich our community.

We wish you all a joyful holiday season and thank you for everything you've contributed in 2025. We look forward to continuing to create new memories and share more experiences with you in 2026!”

Lastly, we invited our Councillors to the front to hand out the Volunteer Certificates.

Thank you all for another wonderful year at GRAGM!