Overawed: Cr Anthony Brophy with Senior Citizen of the Year Kathleen Treacy.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
“I am totally unprepared for this.”
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Kathleen Treacy stood at the lectern in Mooroopna after being named the Senior Citizen of the Year not just for Mooroopna, but for the whole of Greater Shepparton.
“I’m not often lost for words, but ... I was listening to what (emcee) Murray Shields said about me and I thought ‘I don’t know this person’,” she said.
What Mr Shields did was name an incredibly long list of clubs, organisations, groups and people Mrs Treacy helps nearly every day.
Senior Citizen of the Year: Kathleen Treacy gives a speech in Mooroopna at Ferrari Park.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
She is president of the Rodney Park Village residents’ committee, and also volunteers at Mooroopna Place.
She organises events, provides one-on-one support through cooking of meals, does welfare checks in the village and is a voice for the residents.
During the recent flood, Mrs Treacy co-ordinated and arranged material and practical assistance for many people at Rodney Park who needed help with procuring medications and food items, as they were unable to leave the village.
All of it comes naturally to the former St Mary’s Primary School teacher.
Recognition: Pat and Kathleen Treacy at Mooroopna's Australia Day celebrations, where Kathleen was named Greater Shepparton Senior Citizen of the Year.
Following the ceremony, with a bit of time to process the award, Mrs Treacy said she had “started to come to terms with it”.
"There’s a little bit of ‘I don’t deserve this at all’. I certainly wasn’t expecting, I knew something was happening but I didn’t think it was going to be about me,” she said.
“I'm blessed to just find the energy and can keep doing it when it’s something you love, but sometimes I do go home and fall asleep in a chair.”
Mrs Treacy said she had an inkling who put in the nomination for her, and thanked Shepparton Villages’ Veronica Jamieson and David Shipston for their support.
“Obviously they’ve been in cahoots and have thrown me under the bus,” she said with a laugh.
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