Debbie Huxley, Wendy (Boo) Brown, Carmel, Julie McCaffery, Kerrie Thurkettle and Jenny Roberts.
Carmel Brown has been providing services to Harden as a dedicated volunteer for forty-five years with the hospital auxiliary. This has led to her being awarded the United NSW Hospital Auxiliary’s highest honour, Life Membership. The Harden Hospital Auxiliary were also recognised for raising 20 thousand dollars in the financial year and received yet another award for raising more than $500 per member over the year.
Working as President for most of her time with the group, Carmel has earned this award with all the time and effort she has poured into the town.
She said, “I’ve seen a lot of changes in my days. Changes in the Hospital, stuff we bought for the hospital, then seeing the old one go and the new one come into practise.
“We had our rooms up there; we don’t have our rooms up there anymore.
“It is [a sad thing] in a way but we’ve been accommodated by the Bowling Club quite well.”
The group is on the look out for a new, more permanent home and may have found one in the former Senior Citizens building by the Community Garden.
When asked about the changes at hospital during her time, Carmel said she has seen many staff come and go.
One member in particular she had fond memories of was Mary Brandt.
“When I first took over Mary Brandt was there. She used to come to the meetings and would always get the kitchen to do afternoon tea for us and then she would have the best bone china. She would stand at the end of the table and pour the afternoon tea.
“We’ve never had that service since Mary left. She really appreciated all the work we put in at the hospital in those days because we put a lot into it. We worked pretty hard is those days, we went out into the country and did clearing sales. Everything. Bob Molloy used to run monthly sales and we would cater for those.”
“It’s a lot of hard work but we made a lot of money.”
Carmel has left at a good time since the ranks are filled with new members. She will still continue with occasional help, but for the most part has called it a day.
“I’m getting too old for it. I’ve been there for a long time, it doesn’t seem that long, but it is.
“I’d like to thank the members for nominating me. Through their nomination, I got it. It was 12 selected out of 23.
“The Governor was absolutely beautiful. She presented all the badges and then she came over to all the tables and sat on a chair with us and had a yarn to us. She gave a lovely speech.
“There was about 200 women there, it was a good day. We always go to the city one year and the country the next.”
Carmel joked, “They must have classed Newcastle as the country.”
Jackie Berrell, the Secretary of the Hospital Auxiliary was happy to see her friend receive the award. She is still working with the group.
“We’ve got about 18 members at the moment; we have a few new ones.”
The Hospital mostly raise their money through catering, raffle tickets, polo days and manning the gates at community events. This is how they made their award-winning amount of money this year.
“Paperwork lately has been horrendous, like everything else. They want you to go over to computer, but not for me.
“We do special things for some of the customers at their wakes. It can be hard when you know the family.
The group has seen a few new members join and they are on the younger scale of the average according to Jackie. They’re over 50 but not over 70.
It’s good to see the unsung heroes of our twin towns being recognised for their hard work.
Jack Murray
