Sandra Carey has packed a lot into her 31 years in the Echuca community and when she puts the last box in her car next week there will be a lot of sad people left behind.
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Sad, but no doubt thankful, they were able to experience her energy and passion for the community.
She leaves a large legacy behind in the twin towns.
Her three-decade involvement in business and the community represents half of her lifetime, having been drawn to Echuca in 1990 when her husband Des started as production manager with the Yoplait factory.
Sandra will return to the town where she was was born, Warrnambool, on October 7 and when I spoke to her last week she was house hunting in the seaside town.
“I’ve come full circle. I still have family and friends here, so it feels very much like I am back home,” she said.
It’s difficult to know where to start, such is the magnitude of her involvement in the development of the town and some of its most popular community assets.
She told me she hand-picked Echuca as the location from which to raise her family, son Josh is now 27 and daughter Amy is 22. They both live in Melbourne.
“We chose Echuca as the place where we wanted to settle and where we wanted to have our kids,” Sandra said.
Whether it be her years as a teacher with Echuca East Primary School, the role she has played in business or her more recent involvement in managing community organisations – the list of people Sandra Carey has “touched” is long and very, very impressive.
Her first taste of small business was with Cadell Trading, when it was operating “out of a shed in Moama”.
“Sandra and Tim Escott were our partners in that business,” Sandra said.
“It was just a shed in Moama, before we ended up expanding and moving to Ogilvie Ave as Cadell Food Services, where it is now (where son Josh is involved with new business partners, the Kenley family).
“When I had the kids I helped get the front end of the shop up and running.”
At different stages she had a hand in the accommodation industry, through the Sportslander Motel at Moama.
“That was with about five other couples,” Sandra said.
“And then we got involved in the building of the cinema.”
In what was obviously a well considered, and executed, business venture there were five couples involved in the development of the new Paramount Cinemas facility.
“We all brought something to the table,” she said.
“Tim Davey, and his partner Kerry Williams, were involved from a construction standpoint, while Stubberfields brought accounting expertise, the Hollingsworths had a history with cinemas and the Eascotts were the other couple directly involved in the early stages.”
Sandra said the venture would not have happened if not for the support of the National Bank.
“The bank was great to us,” she said.
“I remember we were just sitting around one night chatting about what Echuca still needed.
“We identified the cinema and being a time of opportunity we worked with the council to make it happen.”
After what took years and years of negotiation with the local government authority of the team the five couples eventually went in partnership with the council.
The cinema complex stands as a testament to their foresight, while the Old Paramount Theatre remains standing, now operating as a nightclub.
Sandra said it had always been her philosophy to fill voids wherever she could.
“Probably my greatest achievement, or the thing I am most proud of, is the work I have done in the disability sector,” she said.
“In particular the Murray River Tearooms and the Recyclability Social Enterprise.
“I have seen people fill a hole in their lives by working with those businesses.”
Her involvement with the not-for-profit organisations of Echuca came after she finished a 13-year stint in teaching, four of those at the Echuca East Primary School.
“I managed an accommodation house for three years prior to starting the recyclability program, as well as the tearooms,” she said.
“The tearooms is my brainchild, but I was lucky to have Suzanna Barry (former Community Living and Respite Service CEO) as a mentor.
“We received a lot of support and grants for that to come to fruition.”
Sandra only recently ended her involvement with schools, spending two terms with the at Moama Grammar as a learning support person.
“My kids were founding grade four and six students at the school, more than 15 years ago,” she said.
“I was on the board there and finished my career, which was fitting.”
Sandra has a constant reminder of her grassroots involvement with the Moama Anglican Grammar School, through her dog.
“We named the dog Mags, after the school,” she said.
As for the next phase of life in Warrnambool, she explained she would most likely do a complete loop and finish back where she started.
“I’ve got lots of experience. I started work experience as a 15-year-old when I was in Warrnambool, in disability and looking after kids,” Sandra said.
“I will probably complete a full circle.
“I was only a teenager then, some of those same people are living in their own homes as adults now.”
Sandra said her passion for disability services would see her have a ready-made replacement for the Murray River Teamrooms.
“Tasty Plate is a café which offers employment for people with a disability,” she said.
“That will probably become my ‘local’.”
Sandra’s community involvement did not allow her a lot of free time for social pursuits, but she did attempt to conquer Rich River Golf Club.
“That was about 10 years ago, with a bit of encouragement from Fran Galvin, but work consumed everything,” she said.
She described her 31 years in Echuca as “a wonderful time”.
But she will always have one eye cast back to the north east of the state, as she follows progress of people she has put on the path to reaching their full potential in life.
“Giving back has always been a motto of mine. I feel like I have been given so much opportunity by the Echuca and Moama community that being involved in the fields I have been was a way of giving back.
“Echuca was the making of us, it was a way of me giving back.”
Sandra has regularly opened her bushland garden as an outlet for craft markets, her commitment to social equality often seeing her hire disability facilities for people attending the events.
“I was brought up in a family of volunteers, so I think it is something that is in my blood,” she said.
She said one of her greatest honors was watching first-hand the development of Tayla Molluso, a girl who she followed from the tearooms all the way to casual employment at the Moama RSL.
“They employed her outright from the work she had done at the tearooms,” Sandra said.
“I supported her at the RSL for as long as it took for her to feel comfortable.”
In her 50s, Sandra completed a Community Sector Management course to match her enthusiasm for the area with the qualifications.
I get the feeling she will be keeping a close eye on things from afar and we will not have seen the last of her in Echuca.
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