Dedication to community service

Clifford Wright loves footy and keeps a well-stocked bar fridge next to his electric recliner chair for the games.

“You can’t watch the footy without a beer in your hand,” Cliff punctuates like a true footy fan. 

The catch? Cliff has lived and worked mostly in and around Port Adelaide and Croydon Park where he and wife Elaine raised their cherished three children. He has eight grandchildren now and five great grandchildren and adores them. Cliff however follows the Crows. But that’s sport.

Elaine passed nine years ago and Cliff this year moved into Mount Carmel Residential Care. While he’s still in Port country, so-to-speak, there’s joy knowing his Crows flag continues to fly high.

Over the years Cliff has given his time as a community sports trainer and he has learned a bit from doctors who gave their spare time to community football too, mending the lads.

Cliff’s story, though, has been the one that stands out.

He has been volunteering at St John for 62 years and only missed donning his uniform this Anzac Day parade because his legs weren’t working quite as well as he’d like. 

So Cliff has been spending three days a week at the Mount Carmel gym, determined to build back some leg strength again as well as keep the body in tune. 

Never late for the gym, he can now do a 20kg cable row, bend a green flexbar and pick his legs and feet up to rest on an exercise step. Everyone has been proud of Cliff’s achievements - and the huge smile he always brings too.

Read Cliff’s full story here and how his blazing trail in tireless community service led to his Order of Australia (OAM).