King of Commitment – Doug Gets It DoneThey don’t come any more ‘local’ or devoted than Roxburgh’s Doug Dance, who’s clocked near on 70 years as a local founding St John Ambulance volunteer, Roxburgh Brass Band member and movie projectionist.In fact, there’s not much in town that Doug’s not into, representative on important community trusts and boards, making hospital recommendations, all from the tender age of 16.A born and bred orchardist, now 85, he somehow finds time in his exceptionally busy community commitment schedule to work part-time at Fairview Orchards, after being deemed “too old” to work at 72 by previous employer NZ Gourmet, much to his amusement.Doug, still at it in the orchard. Image, supplied.To Doug, “commitment is key”, no matter what your age. “I’ve always been a stickler for commitment. If I say I’ll do it then I’ll bloody well do it,” he says. “They seem to lack that these days.”The son of an experienced horticulturist, Doug’s expertise was still in demand after selling the family orchard in 1997, travelling to America to check out cherries and blueberries for the local growers.If there’s a job needs doing in the local community, they know Doug will commit.It’s been that way since he was a kid.It’s the way he was brought up, initially on the Moa Seed Farm, near Roxburgh, that his dad managed for the government, then purchased.He then bought their family orchard in 1952 – a rundown property that he turned into a horticultural success. Doug took this over in 1968, already having honed the skills required. “Me and my three sisters always helped picking dead heads off thousands of flowers and bundling thousands more – tulips, sweet peas, all for export, then picking fruit,”Doug says. “We drove a horse and cart with beetroot on board until 1952.”The school bus delivered the mail, so it was a long ride home.A badminton champion in his teens, Doug took out the Otago U19 Singles Championship title two years running and a C Grade Mixed Doubles Championship with his sister.When the Roxburgh Hydro Dam construction was completed in 1957 and the 3000 workers dispersed, a public meeting was called by the local Progress League to replace the ambulance service which the Ministry of Works had previously run for the dam project. Doug was there at 16, voted onto the committee, by then a member of the Roxburgh Boating Club having designed and built his own boat.That year at 16 he passed his adult First Aid licence certification, quickly moving on to Advanced First Aid and Advanced Home Nursing qualifications, all in preparation for the town’s ambulance service.“The tutors came every Tuesday from Dunedin and taught us volunteers at the local school.”Doug, at 18, with the orignial Roxburgh ambulance that he was sent to collect. Image, supplied.Doug then drove the first Roxburgh ambulance up from Dunedin in 1959, aged just 18. “They sent me down in the bus.”Roxburgh had a fully equipped hospital back then due to the dam construction and Doug had barely arrived home when a local lady became seriously ill with a heart attack. “I’d been back five hours, and the doctors decided she had to go to Dunedin, so they rounded up the local traffic cop to drive and put me in the back as orderly. The roads were all gravel, and we got to Round Hill where the traffic cop was swearing because there was a large black cow sitting in the middle of the road!”By 1960 he was Roxburgh area rep on the Otago Ambulance Centre Committee at 19, coordinating ambulances for the area. “We had lots of meetings in Dunedin at 7pm and I’d drive there after work at the orchard and back that night for about 40 years. By the early 90s he was on the St John Trust Board, helping with the negotiations to set up the first Speights-sponsored rescue helicopter.As a teenager he was transport officer, in charge of the ambulance volunteer drivers’ roster – a 24/7 role coordinating the 14 volunteers.“We only had a manual telephone exchange, and the doctors and Police all had to have a copy of the roster so they knew who was on duty to ring.“In later years I’d be at work and my wife would come to get me, or the kids would ride down on their bikes, yelling, ‘Dad, they need the ambulance!’”Doug was chairman of the Roxburgh Hospital Committee by 1968, at 27, five years after marrying wife of 62 years Jean – a position he held for 14 of his 18 years of service, also on the Otago Small Hospital Committee.He’d been old enough to join the Roxburgh Township Jaycees, then the Junior Chamber of Commerce, by 18, chairman at 25 in 1966 - the year they got into the National Jaycee Debating Finals, up against slick big city lawyers and accountants.Jaycee News - Doug being awarded his Jaycees president's badge in 1966. Image, supplied.He served two terms on the Roxburgh Borough Council from 1974, not bad for a kid who was forced to leave school at 14 to help on the family orchard, a desire to study architecture just not an option back then.Besides Doug’s community volunteer commitment had already begun, the local cinema projectionist from age 13, winding the film reels and showing the slides at half time. “We got 6 shillings and 11 pence initially from the council per showing, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. That helped offset the rates,” Doug says. “When they gave up the Jaycees took it on, so it was me, then the Rotarians took over, of which I was one, so me again. Then the Roxburgh Silver Band took it on next - I came with that package too, then the local hall improvement committee of which I was chairman took over, all voluntary.”He received a special award for 60 years of service at the 100-year anniversary of movies in Roxburgh, even a special congratulatory note from local actor Sam Neill.Doug with his trophy celebrating 100 years of movies in Roxburgh in 1998. Image, supplied.Doug was still the movie man until eight years ago when technological advances got the better of him.Besides he had enough on.He joined the Roxburgh Brass Band, now the Roxburgh Pioneer Energy Brass Band, in 1958, playing the tuba for 66 years, still performing at Christmas Shows, Anzac Parades, A & P Shows, Alexandra Blossom and Arrowtown Autumn Festivals. “One year the Blossom Festival organisers put our band right behind the Clyde Pony Club’s large contingent,” he grins. “There was a lot of different foot work going on.”'Dance'ing through the generations - Doug, second left, with the members of his family also in the Roxburgh Brass Band. Image, supplied.Foot work’s his specialty though – as a member of the Band Ballet Corp, Doug starring in The Nutcracker and Swan Lake alongside other hairy legs and armpits in his delightful green tutu.Movies and concerts were always in the Town Hall, which sadly burnt down last year – cause unknown, Doug, of course, leading the charge as chairman of the Roxburgh Entertainment Centre Improvement Committee in 1994. “We raised $1.6m for that four-year project and in half a day it was burnt down.”Doug was promoted to Commander at St John in 1995 and is a Life Member of both Jaycees and Rotary, also a Paul Harris Fellow.He’s received Central Otago Community Services Awards twice (1993 and 2015), been a Local Hero of NZ in 2017 and was “very honoured” in 2022 to receive a special minted medal from the Queen for his 65 years’ service to St John. “It landed on my back doorstep via courier due to Covid restrictions.”Somehow Doug found time to broadcast the weather on the radio every morning from 1997 too, still broadcasting his own weekly ‘Tales From The Teviot’ show: “It’s all been quite busy, but it’s all about commitment,” he says.
