STEPH COOKE CELEBRATES FINDING HIDDEN TREASURES

February 2, 2018

Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke didn’t have to dig very deep to find some hidden treasure in Narrandera this week.

Ms Cooke was joined by more than 20 women from across the Cootamundra electorate to present them with certificates recognising their presence on the 2017 Hidden Treasures Honour Roll.

The women gathered at Narrandera’s Art and Community Centre in Cadell Street on Monday to listen to Ms Cooke recognise them for their volunteer contributions, before she presented each of them with certificates to commemorate their presence on the Honour Roll.

“It really was a privilege for me to meet these lovely women and present them with certificates,” Ms Cooke said.

“The amount of time and energy they each devote to their voluntary work is incredible, and we as a community owe them so much for what they do that presenting these certificates almost seems like not enough.

“Without their selfless devotion – and I’m really not overstating this – there would be people dealing with bereavement,” she said.

“Lives really have been saved as part of the work done by volunteers like these Hidden Treasures.”

One of the Hidden Treasures was Kathy Denning, who had travelled from Cowra to attend the ceremony.

Mrs Denning, 62, is a founding member of the Cowra Antique Vehicle Club and is part of the Driver Reviver team which provides a break and a cup of tea for drivers who wish to break their long journey.

It’s no quick hop from Cowra to Narrandera, but it was a journey Kathy was more than happy to make.

“I felt so honoured that I had been nominated and accepted – this is hard for me telling you what I’ve done, I’m not one to go out and advertise what I do. I just love doing it. I don’t do it for any reward.”

But if anything is worth some kind of reward, it’s Kathy’s work with Driver Reviver.

“We used to have a very old caravan but over the last couple of years we’ve been raising money to get a permanent building,” she said. “It’s a lot more secure than an old caravan that’s falling apart, we’ve got on-tap hot water, and we’ve got air-conditioning.” 

Having more secure surrounds to do her work is a definite requirement, given the hours Kathy works as a volunteer.

“I used to do the midnight to dawn shift, during which we would usually see two or three drivers,” she said. 

“We usually have more members than customers, but as far as we are concerned, if you can save one life then it’s worth it.”

Kathy recalls one shift where her presence quite literally made a difference between life and death.

“During one shift I stopped a girl committing suicide – she had had a big fight with her boyfriend, they had been travelling a long time and he had started beating her up,” she said. “She tried to reverse into a tree at full speed, and then she came over to us and started talking to us and tried to jump into the fire.

“She had no money, no nothing, and I sat there talking to her for hours. We eventually gave her a phone and she called her father to transfer some money into her account so she could get some petrol and get home.

“She was OK when she left.”

Kathy and her husband Russell also make a difference in less confronting ways. 

“We donated a futon to go in because we had a woman who had travelled up from a dog show in Melbourne and was heading home to Orange.

“All the way to Cowra she could not get accommodation anywhere, and she pulled in with us and we rang around to try to get somewhere for her.

“We couldn’t get anything but because she knew we were there, she felt safe to sleep in her car.

“So Russell and I donated a futon for a lockable room, so if there is anybody in that situation, there’s a bed for them.”

The 2017 nominees join a growing roll call of more than 900 volunteers who have been recognised since the first Honour Roll was launched in 2010.

This important tribute documents and celebrates the unpaid work of women who ensure the viability of so many crucial community groups and charities.

An estimated 43.7 per cent of adult Australians volunteered a total of 932 million hours in 2016.

For more information on the Hidden Treasures Honour Roll visit the DPI website http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/about-us/rural-support/rural-womens-network