Champion Gail honoured

A Mt Barker woman has been recognised for her commitment to the Plantagenet community, scooping up a 2011 Seniors Week Award at the weekend.

Picture: Mt Barker’s Gail Short (right) with her WA Seniors Award, presented by Council on the Ageing president Bob Kucera and Australian Super’s Christina Camacho.

Gail Short, 69, was the winner of the Westscheme/Council on the Ageing Champion for Seniors Award and was presented with a trophy at a gala event held at Burswood Entertainment Complex in Perth.

“I was honoured,” she said.

“It was a great day. It allows other volunteers to meet each other.”

Mrs Short grew up in Waroona and has lived in Mt Barker for 13 years, volunteering her time and skills as a Mt Barker Community Resource Centre board member.

“Mt Barker Baptist Church decided it needed to do more for the community,” she said.

“The people there sold up and put the money towards setting up the community resource centre.”

With a group of volunteers, she used her experience with community projects to help develop the resource centre and find board members.

Many community groups and individuals benefit from Mrs Short’s work.

They can use facilities including a new town library, Centrelink agency, Foodbank and after-school care.

“It’s an amazing facility for Mt Barker, it’s bringing the town up to date,” Mrs Short said.

Mrs Short said she was inspired to help the community after living in Papua New Guinea for nine years.

“When I was first married, my husband and I lived in Papua New Guinea (and) we saw the need to be involved in community work,” she said.

“They have so little and we have so much.

“When I retired I went overseas to do community work in the Asia-Pacific region.

“I helped others set up community resource centres to help less-developed countries such as Thailand and Nepal.”

Seniors Week runs from November 6 to 13 with many events being held across WA.

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