Mrs McKinnon has been awarded the Queen's Service Medal for services to the community.
The Whanganui woman had six years as deputy mayor from 2004 to 2010 and is the current chairwoman of the Whanganui and Mid Central district health boards as well as being on the national executive.
Mrs McKinnon said the QSM was a nice award to get.
"It's really lovely because this is the community that's putting forward my name," she said.
"I'm just delighted for my husband and my family too because they've had to put up doing all those things over the years.
"I started when someone asked me to if I would join the Plunket Committee. I started by making cakes."
She keeps a record of all her engagements and says she clocked up 3000 just as deputy mayor.
"Whether it was attending rest-home games, opening a bowls club tournament," Mrs McKinnon said.
Her various roles make for long hours but she says she has always been a busy person.
"I guess I've got a strong social conscience and I really think it's vital that people contribute in whatever way they can."
As for her most treasured achievements? She says they've all been done as part of a team.
But she does look out over the Whanganui River from her office at Moore Law and watch people using the walkway along the river. She played a big role in getting that done as chairwoman of the council's infrastructure committee at the time.
"It was about trying to bring a lot more of Whanganui down to the waterfront. We found a way to actually get government to give us a large subsidy. But I'm not one to say 'Oh, I did this and I did that'.
Article Sourced NZ Herald.
