At a Gore Rotary Club meeting last Wednesday, Laurie Paterson and Bryce McKenzie were each awarded the Paul Harris Fellow award.
In 2023, the pair drove tractors from Invercargill to Auckland in protest at unworkable regulations imposed on food producers by the Labour government.
The award recognised their contributions to the agricultural sector.
Gore Rotary Club president Russell Welsh said the men deserved the award.
"It’s a nice thing to do for them because they’ve done so much for the community.
"In pointing out silly regulations and they never were intending to be front people for the farming community," Mr Welsh said.
In New Zealand the award was earned and one had to be recognised by their peers, he said.
Mr McKenzie said he had no idea he would be receiving the award.
He and Mr Paterson had been told they would be speaking at the meeting and would give an update on how they had been in dealing with the government, he said.
Instead of speaking they were called up to the podium to collect their awards.
"Somebody might have told a little bit of an exaggeration," Mr McKenzie said.
"For me it’s showed that we’ve done something that people were appreciative of. I hadn’t really looked at it that way before.
"It’s acknowledgement that we’ve put a lot of effort in."
Mr Paterson said he also had no idea he would receive the award but was humbled nonetheless.
"Groundswell represents a lot of people and I think it really brings home to us the fact that group of people
have really achieved something quite momentous," Mr Paterson said.
He outlined the achievement of the Drive4Change protest.
