VALUED community member Beryl Lowe received an award on Friday afternoon for 60 years of volunteering for the Red Cross.
She was presented with the award at the Swan Hill Club by Cr Les McPhee, who praised Ms Lowe on her “long and rewarding community involvement”.
Ms Lowe was also named “Citizen of The Year,” in 2022 by Swan Hill Council.
“There’s not many people within the Swan Hill community that do not know or know of Beryl,” Cr McPhee said.
Ms Lowe started volunteering aged just eight when she was growing up in the UK, when her family lived below the poverty line.
“If it wasn’t for the help of St Vincent de Paul, I’m not sure where we would have ended up,” Ms Lowe said.
“I remember my first day of high school, and I wore a cream blouse instead of a white one and a girl asked why I had a cream blouse, and why I’ve got that hat on.”
“It was because Vincent de Paul gave them to me, and so because I got my things second hand, I was ostracised for a whole term.”
She had always wanted to help others the same way they helped her.
“I suppose I’ve always been community minded and wanted to put something back in to the community because it was also what my mother was doing.”
“And I like living by those principles and have been doing so ever since I was a kid.”
After Ms Lowe moved to Australia in 1963, she volunteered at the Red Cross at Preston, Melbourne.
She moved to Lake Boga in 1973, and there, she established a first aid team, and helped with fundraising for the Royal Children’s Hospital appeal and for Lake Boga football trips.
Her contributions to the community also include promoting women’s softball in Lake Boga through the Ladies Auxiliary Brigade as well as organising the Lake Boga Carols by Candlelight.
And for the last 35 years, she has been managing the Visitor & Community Comfort Centre in Swan Hill, which provides mothers with baby change and feeding facilities, a kitchen and lounge, as well as toilets and showers.
Ms Lowe has also helped with aid and relief from residents affected by bushfires.
“It’s the satisfaction of knowing you can help them when they’re in trouble,” she said.
Cr McPhee emphasised the importance of volunteers in the community, and encouraged younger people to be more involved in volunteering for the community, as the local volunteer demographic ages.
“We need to get the youth of today thinking about volunteering because they’re the future,” Cr McPhee said.
“The reward and benefit they can get back from volunteering is an asset to them and will help them in their life.”
