Layne Beachley: Helping girls achieve their dreams
By Jenny Symons
How you first became involved with your community and volunteering?
Oh my goodness! It started a long way back! I started working in my local surf shop when I was 13 – that was unpaid but it gave me a place to store my board. And from then on I always just participated in local fundraising activities around Manly. I remember helping raise money for local charities such as Stewart House and then I MC'd a police operation called operation Shoreline. So I've always been involved – that was all early in my career.
Where do you think that came from – that interest?
I just think I've always had that desire to give back. I've always been surrounded by people who participated in the local community just growing up around Manly. I think the Northern Beaches has always been a great community and a very community-minded environment to grow up in. I think this area has always been a very generous community – they've always been very involved with fundraising for various causes.
I've just always had a desire to give back and I never took my position as a role model for granted. I always took my responsibility as a role model very seriously, I always realised that it gave me this terrific opportunity to make a difference and I wanted to make the most of that opportunity.
Was there any one particular incident or person that influenced your involvement in the community and volunteering?
I don't think that I can attribute my involvement to any one particular person or one particular experience but I've been surrounded by many champions around Manly. I think that's one of the advantages of growing up around the Northern beaches…I've always been aware of how grounded and appreciative they were and their ability to give back.
What or who first prompted you to think about setting up the Foundation?
It was one of my Board members, Guy Reynolds from Macquarie Bank, who first suggested I set up a Foundation to encourage young women. He was privy to some of the challenges I'd faced as a woman in my very male-dominated sport. He was aware that a lot of other athletes – Alan Border, Dean Jones and Ian Thorpe and others – set up Foundations to help the underprivileged or to support different causes so why didn't I think about setting up a Foundation myself to support something I felt passionate about. I thought that was a really great idea. So it was set up with the aid of Macquarie Bank and KPMG with the aim of supporting young girls with their dreams, to help reduce some of the obstacles they face and to help prevent them from quitting – as I'd often thought about along the way in my own career.
What led you to focus the Foundation on 'supporting and promoting the academic, sporting, community and cultural dreams of young women'?
When you think about the male-dominated environment I've operated in for the last 30 years, I just felt that the women really got an unfair go. I also believed that women are potentially our greatest supporters but we can neglect each other, so I wanted to give girls that kind of support, the feeling that someone was supporting them and believing in them. When I look back on my life, there have always been one or two people who have always been there when I needed them and that made all the difference to me. And I feel if I have that kind of impact on someone else's life, than I've done my job.
How have you found the experience of setting up the Foundation?
It's been a wonderful experience for me. What I think is special about the Foundation is that I'm a very hands-on person. I don't set up something like the Foundation and then expect other people to do all the work: I read all the applications, I meet all the girls and I spend as much time with them as I can and I try to stay in contact with them and I fully intend that they will remain a part of my life.
What is the prevalence of community involvement and volunteering in the surfing community?
It's a bit hard for me to judge whether it's any more or less prevalent in the surfing community that in other sporting communities. But I do think we're a very generous and supportive community.
What is it about your volunteering activities that you find rewarding?
I've had the opportunity to help hundreds of girls and I think it's just that preparedness to stick with them and give them a bit of my time.
The most rewarding thing is seeing the girls achieve their dreams.
When I call them and tell them the Foundation is going to be able to give them $1500 or $3000 to help them achieve their aims, it's wonderful to hear their response, to hear their excitement. In a way, it's a very little amount of money for an enormous amount of impact. And meeting them is so rewarding and exciting. Do you know we had six girls at the 2008 Olympic Games?
And there's been a real cross-section of girls that we've helped – from athletes of all kinds to a marine biologist and a heart research scientist, a rodeo rider, volleyball and environmentalists including some young girls who instigated a plastic bag-free community and went to the UN to put their case. Just all sorts of amazing people!
When I read through the applications, I wish I could help every single one of them! And if they don't win, I always encourage them to re-apply.
Are there volunteers working with the Foundation and what are their roles?
Yes, the members of the Board are all volunteers and then there are also volunteers who do work on the database of applicants and organise the functions and lots of others.
What role do you think volunteering has in our community?
I think volunteering has a very important role in our community and I know that at the moment there's a real challenge as people are finding they have to be more careful of how they spend their money and how they decide on how much support they can afford but I've always felt that, if you have the time and motivation and the ability to give back, then you should.
I also think [volunteering] gives you a groundedness [sic] throughout your own career. It's always helped me to realise how lucky I am and how unfortunate so may others are. It's so rewarding to be able to make a difference in these people's lives.
I think it helps to be confronted with people less fortunate than yourself, it helps put everything back in perspective, a reality check, to remind you that other people can have a really tough time.
An example of this: In 2008 I lost a heat at Bell's Beach. It was a really close semi-final heat and I came out of the water and I was so disappointed and frustrated. But I'd made a commitment to meet this little girl who really loved surfing but who had a rare disease and had to have a leg amputated in a week's time. So I made the time to go and talk to her and it just put everything back into perspective and I think that's what volunteering does. It gives you a reality check.
There are a lot of people out there who don't think that they can make a difference but it's just a matter of realising that every single one of us has the choice – and the ability – to make a difference if we choose to do so. The longest journey always starts with the smallest step…I think that we all have the opportunity to make a difference.
Layne Beachley was awarded the inaugural NSW Volunteer Ambassador of the Year Award in 2008.
The Centre
for Volunteering [ABN 28 002 416 024]
Level 2, 228 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
T: 02 9261 3600 | F: 02 9261 4033 | E: info@volunteering.com.au | www.volunteering.com.au