2021 Senior Volunteers of the Year – Kay Ching-Kue Tang and Helen Mears

Kay Ching-Kue Tang from Chatswood

Kay has been a volunteer instructor at Willoughby City Council’s MOSAIC Multicultural Centre for 27 years.

At 92 she commutes to MOSAIC to teach three classes a week, with students travelling up to two hours each way for her classes.

Kay speaks English, Mandarin and Japanese and helps bring people together to bridges the gaps to connect each other in the Willoughby community. She is a strong advocate for and supporter of other Council initiatives such as organic gardening, sustainability, social inclusion and community awareness of health and wellbeing issues.

Helen Mears from Coffs Harbour

Helen has been a United Hospital Auxiliaries volunteer at Coffs Harbour Health Campus (CHHC) for the past 40 years. She has fundraised for medical equipment, staffed the hospital’s cafe and gift shop, and recruited, managed and inspired countless volunteers.

Helen has been the President of the local UHA group, the Pink Ladies, for over 30 years, overseeing the donation of more than $3 million.

During 2020, when all volunteers were stood down due to the COVID, Helen volunteered to order stock and was heavily involved in the reopening of the gift shop and ensuring it was safe for all volunteers to return. When the vaccination program was rolled out at CHHC, she volunteered her time, mostly on weekends, to pack care packs for all staff who were receiving the vaccination.

She also volunteers in the Special Care Nursery, provides a monthly homemade morning tea for Mental Health and caters for regular meetings at Shearwater Lodge, an accommodation centre for cancer patients.