PRIMARY school teacher Anne-Marie Westby has ridden a wave of success and was crowned this year's Summer Surf Girl on Saturday.
The 25-year-old Dutton Park primary teacher was one of seven finalists in the prestigious event but won the title after also winning the prize for raising the most funds.
She put more than $2000 in the pipeline for her beloved Point Lookout Surf Life Saving Club on North Stradbroke Island.
Raising funds for the club was never going to be easy for the busy teacher who had to fit in her charity work around keeping a classroom of seven-year-olds happy.
"It’s been very difficult, it’s a lot of work," she said.
"The Summer Surf Girl program has two tiers. One is community awareness and on my school holidays I’ve been going and doing programs – and on top of that is the fundraising, so once a month we plan a fundraiser.
"It has been challenging, trying to balance fundraising, my work as a teacher and then having a social life thrown in there somewhere."
The award will help the small family-run club buy equipment.
"When the equipment necessary to maintain one patrol is worth in excess of $50,000, you start to quickly realise how enormous this extra responsibility becomes," she said.
"By servicing two beaches, we require twice the amount of equipment than any other Surf Life Saving Club in Queensland.
"Additionally, Point Lookout SLSC does not source any income through restaurant or pokies facilities so we rely solely on our fundraising efforts to get us by."
Her parents played a major role in her successful fund raising and she chose the Straddie club because it was where she first joined the Nippers in 1997 after her family moved to Cleveland.
She started Nippers as a seven-year-old and when she progressed into the club it gave her parents a network and she made life-long friends.
She said she was proud of her volunteering and fund-raising efforts and those of the other six contestants.
"I always try to promote to my children that we don’t necessarily have to be doing something to get something back," she said.
"I’m always trying to encourage them to help someone out for the good feeling you get from it.
"It's never been about winning, for me. It’s always been about just doing it because the surf club has given me so much and been such a big part of my life."
