By Garry Howe
There are not too many community events around Pakenham these days where Wendy Andrews is not front and centre, in the thick of the action.
A member of the Lakeside Residents Group since 2010 and its president for the past five years, Wendy has helped take the annual Australia Day celebration at the Cardinia Cultural Centre to the next level.
She is among a band of volunteers who have breathed new life into Art Show Pakenham (formerly the Yakkerboo Art Show) and for the past few years has run the pavilion at the Pakenham Show.
Wendy has also been a member of the Yakkerboo Festival Committee and in what little spare time she has makes memory bears for people who have lost love ones.
Community work comes naturally to her, a trait passed down mother Audrey Pearson who, like Wendy, always had a fundraiser or community effort on the go.
“When I was young living in New Zealand I remember helping Mum organise afternoon tea to raise money for the local pool club to travel to Australia to compete. My father played pool and Mum would organise the raffles and afternoon teas to fund the trip,” Audrey recalled. “I would always help her out.”
Audrey moved to Lakeside in 2007 and continued that trend, organising functions locally for the likes of Camp Quality.
Wendy moved with her family – husband Wayne and children Jonathan and Sarah – to Lakeside from Wantirna a year later. Typically, she wound up on the netball, basketball and deb ball committees there and decided to give herself some time off community involvement with the move.
That lasted only two years.
She soon found herself on what was then the Lakeside Community Development Forum, got involved in Yakkerboo, helped out on the Wally Wombat Trail at the Pakenham Show and was asked by Graeme and Val Vale to take over the pavilion they had headed up for years when the show moved from the racecourse to P.B. Ronald Reserve.
When not working for the community, Wendy helps pay the bills as a marriage celebrant – and now presides over the occasional funeral as well.
She hadn’t done one until a couple of years back when a local resident requested she oversee his service. She has now done four funerals including, sadly, her own grandchild.
The other candidates for the Stan Henwood award this year were Caroline Roff from Kooweerup and Upper Beaconsfield’s Rob Irving.
Cardinia mayor Graeme Moore welcomed guests by saying it was a very special event on the local calendar and that he saw a lot of familiar faces in the room.
He said the theme of National Volunteer Week was Making a World of Difference – which guests did so well.
“The people who volunteer don’t want praise, they don’t want recognition, they don’t want thanks – they do it because they like to help out,” he said.
Cardinia Shire’s Citizen of the Year Harpreet Kandra, Senior Citizen of the Year June Wright and Young Citizen of the Year Meagan Venables all spoke of their experience in volunteering.
June left many open-mouthed by her contribution over many years and said “I hope I can continue volunteering as long as my health permits”.
Harpreet said the definition of volunteering was time willingly given for the common good and without any financial gain.
Meagan said that when volunteering you not only give your time, but a bit of yourself – and admitted she had been self diagnosed with ‘volunesia’.
For an edited version of Meagan’s speech, turn to My Passion on page 18.
