Honoured for life full of service
A CAKE queen and muchloved member of the Townsville community has been recognised for more than 60 years of volunteer work at half a dozen organisations.
Olive Foley, 86, has been named Female Townsville Senior of the Year, nominated by the Queensland Country Women’s Association Magnetic Garbutt branch.
Mrs Foley was raised in Prairie and moved to Townsville at 15.
She started volunteering at about 20, when her first son David was born with Down syndrome.
Mrs Foley fundraised for the Sub- Normal Children’s Welfare Association – now the Endeavour Foundation – with cake stalls.
“We raised all the money we could and spent every Sunday cooking cakes. My kids loved all the cake bowls to lick,” she said.
As her four children went through school, Mrs Foley volunteered at tuckshops and election day cake stalls.
“I seem to be a cake queen, I spent so much time making cakes,” she said.
“( Politician) Tom Aikens, from Queensland Labor, would come to Mundingburra School and say ‘ I’ll have all the cakes that Mrs Foley makes, put them aside’. “I had a reputation for that.” Mrs Foley volunteered for Meals on Wheels, washing pots and feeding residents.
She took up golf and ended up president of the Rowes Bay Ladies Golf Club.
“It was the best time of my life, the most fun I ever had was learning golf and playing golf and going to other towns,” she said.
Mrs Foley also volunteered at Lifeline and for the Civic Theatre, as a tea server and “general dogsbody”.
“( Work at the Theatre) went on for she said.
“If the theatre wasn’t booked out, we were allowed to go in and watch, but you missed out on a bit of the plays.”
Mrs Foley joined QCWA in 2000 because her mother, grandmother and aunties in Prairie “were always in the CWA”.
She has held positions at the branch level of president, vicepresident and treasurer.
At the division level, Mrs Foley has been on the Northern Division Units committee as secretary and treasurer, ensuring the running of the Denham St Units and Hall and the Kissing Points Units.
Mrs Foley has stepped down from those positions but continues to contribute as a committee member.
She said she loved helping the community and meeting women who shared her values.
“We all worked together and we were all trying our best Civic years,” to help the world or help the people of Townsville,” she said.
“That was mainly what it was all about. I just like being with people. There are so many lovely ladies who were always there with me.
“You don’t realise what satisfaction you get out of volunteering until you start and help other people.”
Mrs Foley was surprised to win the Senior of the Year award last month.
“I feel very humbled to know there are others who worked as hard as me and I’m the one who got the recognition,” she said.
Her husband died of prostate cancer and son David passed away with heart problems, but Mrs Foley has found her decades of volunteer work means she is never alone.
“My daughter says ‘ it’s awful going out with you Mum,’ because everyone says ‘ G’day, Olive, how are you going?’” she said.
“I think I know Townsville.” half of