Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to speak about a true hero of the local area of Kingborough in southern Tasmania. I'm really proud to say that this person is a very, very dear friend of mine. Her name is Mrs Edna Florence Pennicott, and in fact her name now can have an 'OAM' put after it. Edna Pennicott has dedicated her life to serving her community. She established and is the driving force behind Kingborough Helping Hands, now a registered local charity delivering food and household necessities to people in need. She's been the president since incorporation in 2013, but she has been running this service out of her home for over 40 years.

Every Thursday night a team of volunteers leaves her home with food, hot meals and other goods for those in need, such as blankets, beanies and toiletries, to take on Loui's Van, which is organised by Edna in the south of Hobart, on the weekly run, making three stops around the Kingborough area, assisting dozens of people on any one night. Edna has also organised a team of volunteers to assist in cooking and organising the food and other goods for the van run. In any given year, Kingborough Helping Hands distributes upwards of 75 hampers, valued at $100 each, and then at Christmas another 200 to 300 hampers. Putting together the Christmas hampers requires a lot of coordination of the dozens of volunteers who sort, wrap and pack the gifts and the goods, and it also takes a phenomenal effort in the preceding months to collect the items for the hampers—all organised by Edna. Edna's home is the home of Kingborough Helping Hands and, at Christmas especially, her rooms and hallways overflow with food and goods for others. To raise funds for Kingborough Helping Hands, Edna facilitates a Christmas fundraising luncheon which pays for the toys, goods and hamper items.

Last Christmas, there were 350 children that got toys who would not have got toys otherwise. And we're talking good-quality, decent toys—toys that those children would otherwise not have had. Over 200 people attend this event, which is a wonderful demonstration of how much Edna's community support and appreciate her wonderful work. The Annie Kenney Young Women's Refuge also benefits from support in the form of hampers from Kingborough Helping Hands, which Edna organises. Throughout the year, Kingborough Helping Hands also donates practical goods to the refuge such as new linen, and pyjamas for the young girls in need.

In July there is another fundraiser, the Soup and Sandwich Luncheon. While volunteers spend the morning making sandwiches, Edna has been preparing quiches, sausage rolls and delicious cakes and slices for this event for weeks —her freezers are chockers. She organises Bunnings barbecues for Kingborough Helping Hands as well. Just a couple of years ago, the local Kingborough council granted permission for Edna to establish the Kingborough Helping Hands Sharing Tree, with Christmas trees displayed in two local shopping centres throughout the month of December. It's staffed by volunteers who happily accept gifts and vouchers which are then distributed to people in need in the local area. Edna has been part of the Kingborough Tigers Football Club for 45 years and has raised over $200,000 of outside money just for that club, which has obviously helped it enormously. It has helped the club deliver programs in both the junior and senior divisions and has assisted with the cost of registration for the kids that can't afford it and the purchasing of gear required to play the game.

I know I'm going to run out of time, but I want to list some of the other things that Edna has been involved in for over 40 years. The Kingborough District Cricket Club and many community functions have benefited from Edna's hands-on, 'getting there and doing it' approach and service. On Anzac Day, this woman—and, I hope she doesn't mind me saying this, she's in her 70s—gets up at 3 o'clock in the morning on Anzac Day to help cook the breakfast at the local Anzac Day ceremony. She's done catering for Guides and Scouts functions, and she always comes and helps me at the Walk4BrainCancer Tasmania in Hobart.

Edna is a stalwart of the Kingborough community. She always thinks of others before herself and is always on the lookout for ways to help others who are less fortunate She has never been paid one cent for the work she undertakes; in fact, I know there are times when she's gone without to help others. Edna has not had an easy life, but she is a prime example of how one person can make a massive difference to another person's life. She raised two biological children and was a sole parent from when they were about three or four years old, and she was a foster mother to five children who were in her care full-time and also provided part-time and occasional care for many other foster children. She mentors young people. She often speaks to students at local schools about how they can be involved in the community. Edna is an icon of the Kingborough community. She is selfless and an inspiration. She is truly a remarkable woman, and the recognition of her service to the community as a Member of the Order of Australia is more than well deserved.