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When Cliff Armitage quit his job as lawyer and policy adviser within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, his colleagues didn't really understand why.
Having worked on John Howard's gun control policy, Armitage was awarded the Public Service Medal, but he wanted to pursue another passion.
“I decided I'd like to do more with other interests I had as a volunteer and retrained as a teacher,” he said.
“I do relief teaching and that gives me time to do my other volunteer activities. I think the thing with doing volunteer work in the community is you do get a lot out of it yourself; you don't realise until you give it a go and I guess that's what I encourage each other people to do.
His longest running project is called Project Box Seat, which is designed to make families with sick kids “feel a bit special” and is now in its 15th year.
“It just started off as an idea that I had because I lent my DVD collection to my next-door neighbour. They had a severely disabled child and mum was stuck home all day and she just found that really useful.
“I thought why can't I do that for other families with really sick kids?”
He initially partnered with Camp Quality and now the project is running through the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn.
"What I didn't realise when I started Project Box Seat is it involves you with people, it involves you with the community; I've got lots of new friends through what I've done.
"And kids are lovely to work with because when they're excited and enthusiastic about something, it's fantastic."
Armitage's service to youth and to the community has seen him awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia.
“I think there's a lot of people in the community doing wonderful things and in essence you're a representative of those people,” he said of the award.
“There's a lot more people probably doing much more worthwhile things who aren't getting the same recognition.”