Meet Our Volunteers
Meet our Volunteers: Emma Dean
Emma, like Claire Forster (see previous article), is undoubtedly reducing our volunteers’ average age considerably – good on you for joining our Wheelchair Team! She immigrated from the US of A (New Jersey) and holds a Permanent Resident visa, intending to apply for full Australian citizenship. By profession, she is a qualified Occupational Therapist. Along…
Read MoreMeet our Volunteers: Claire Forster
OK, so I admit that I realised that Claire does not match the average age profile of our volunteers… 😊 Like a breath of fresh air, Claire joined our team at the Wheelchair Project shed only recently. So what motivates a young woman to work on the conversion of old bicycles to wheelchairs? “I migrated…
Read MoreMeet our volunteers: Ron Thomson
“I was born in Port Douglas” Ron proudly declared. To my question whether that was before the emergence of that town in Queensland’s Far North as a major tourist destination, he added “well, there were some 50 hotels already then!” After High School, Ron initially worked in Retail, then at 21 years of age, decided…
Read MoreMeet our volunteers: Jimmy Pearce
… “So you’re retired?” I asked him. Yeah, right! Jimmy is one of these people who will never be inactive! He was born some 67 years ago in Invercargill, on the very southern end of the New Zealand South Island. (Yes, they breed them tough down there; there isn’t much between that town and Antarctica…) Jimmy’s vocation…
Read MoreMeet our Volunteers: Bob Heffernan
If you heard just a few minutes about Bob’s work and business career, you could be forgiven if the term ‘Jack of All Trades’ springs to your mind. After all, over a lifetime of honest toil, he held such a wide variety of trades. But, looking at it a bit closer, you’ll learn that upon…
Read MoreMeet our Volunteers: Lionel Molloy
Some of our volunteers are “the quiet type” – Lionel Molloy fits that category admirably! Born in Blenheim, in New Zealand’s Marlborough wine region, he trained as a Cabinet Maker. But Australia beckoned… At age 20 he came across the ditch and… went shearing! This he did for some 20 years. During the off season,…
Read MoreMeet our Volunteers: Nevil Tait
He is a true Queenslander! Born in Redbank (for those of you not familiar with the local geography: the suburb before Ipswich). He is the son of a local coal miner, graduated from Ipswich State High and proceeded to study Architecture at the Central Technical College (today, the Queensland University of Technology). “In those days,…
Read MoreMeet our Volunteers: Paul Fullagar
Paul is one of our newest recruits who joined our wheelchair project team at Arundel only just last month, in October. Originally from the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Paul is a qualified Electrical Fitter and Mechanic by trade. He has worked in a variety of positions, ranging from ‘Housing Work Contractor, to Frequency Testing, Injection…
Read MoreMeet our Volunteers: Peter Martin
“I went to about 6 different schools” Peter explained. No, not because he was one of those impossible kids who always get expelled! His father’s work as an earthmoving contractor simply demanded that they live where the big contracts were. Born in Thornton, North-East of Melbourne near Lake Eildon, the family ultimately settled in Shepparton…
Read MoreMeet our Volunteers: Rick Parry
He might not be the longest-serving Associate Member at our project shed (he joined our team in 2021), but certainly Rick is one of our most active ones. But what a distinguished “pre-wheelchairs” career! “I joined the Navy Reserve in 1967 as a Radar Plotter (yes, the same guys they use in recruiting advertisements), and retired 51 years…
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