A Leader’s Story
An insight into the past and present of one of our extraordinary leaders.
Hazel Parker
Hazel Sylvia Parker is the Director of Coffs Harbour’s Faith Family Early Learning Centre and has held the role for the past 13 years. Hazel and her husband, Wayne, have four sons and seven grandchildren, with an eighth soon to join the family in May. Hazel is passionate about helping children to learn through play and has found immense success in utilising programs such as the Circle of Security to help develop confidence and wellbeing during the most formative years of a person’s life. Hazel is a graduate of the University of New England - Armidale campus and has worked at Faith Family Early Learning Centre for the past 25 years.
Hazel was born in Blacktown, NSW as the eleventh of twelve siblings. Attesting to her mother as a great example of someone who was always “bigger, kinder, stronger and wise”, Hazel remembers occasions where she would spend time teaching her dolls and teddy bears in her room - a prelude to a career to come. Growing up, Hazel also spent a lot of time on the netball court, playing high-level representative netball for multiple years as a Goal Attack; she recounts that she often couldn’t do a lot of representative play, however, as teams would often play or travel on Sundays and church was a personal priority to her - though Hazel still managed to win Best and Fairest in both QLD and VIC-based carnivals. In an earlier role at a taxation office, Hazel also competed with her work team at highly competitive levels. At the age of 19, Hazel married Wayne Parker and the two moved from Blacktown to Hazelbrook, where they had three of their four sons. From Hazelbrook, the family moved to Taree in order to further pursue Wayne’s job and had their fourth son there.
“There’s nothing that God and I can’t do together.”
When Hazel and her family moved to Coffs Harbour, Hazel became an employee for the Family Link Centre in the Baby Room and worked in that department for 12 years.
At the time, Hazel was able to serve under the vision of founder Dianne Matthewson, which was “to have a service where children are amazingly loved and nurtured and the love of Christ would be sown into them” , as well as a high regard for learning, as Dianne was trained to be a teacher and considered education very important - affectionately referred to as “Loving and Learning” by Hazel. During her time as Director, Hazel has had the privilege of receiving multitudes of positive testimonials from parents, especially those who have found success and care at Faith Family Early Learning where they hadn’t found it at other centres previously. Hazel says that her response to these stories is simple: “It’s because we cheat - we pray.” A strong woman of faith and a confident advisor to the power of prayer, Hazel expresses that the skills and traits that she considers most valuable in her role are “knowing how to look up and trust in Him”, “learning how to let the Lord be your strength” and “to remember!”; in a nutshell, Hazel summarises it by reminding herself, “There’s nothing that God and I can’t do together.”
Hazel Parker is a person who simply loves caring for people and continues to be a shining light within her community. Hazel is looking forward to what this year holds for her and her family, just as we are looking forward to celebrating alongside Hazel and the rest of our amazing Faith Family Early Learning teams during our Vision Sunday on February 6th!