Yamba resident Helen Brown has been named as Senior Volunteer of the Year, as well as over-all Volunteer of the Year, in the North Coast region Volunteer of the Year awards, which were announced on Friday.

In a media statement from The Centre for Volunteering it provided a profile on Helen, outlining her achievements:

Helen has made a life-long commitment to volunteering and her local Aboriginal community by providing professional and personal support and advocacy for people in need. Helen is a Board member of the Aboriginal Legal Service North Coast Region, as well as being a committee member for the Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre.

She also finds time to volunteer for the Justice Advocacy Service and attends the Police Aboriginal Consultative Committee (PACC), Aboriginal Community Consultative Committee (ACCC) with Acmena Youth Justice Centre, and Clarence Valley Community Drug Action Team. She provides individual support wherever it is needed to members of the Aboriginal community – writing resumes, providing meals, clothes, transport to medical appointments and personal family support during difficult legal procedures.

Helen said that she was still in shock at the news of taking out the awards.

“I haven’t come back down to earth yet,” Helen said.

“It was a bit out there.

“I’ve been volunteering for about 40 years I guess, and you just do it because you have to,” she said.

Helen along with the other 24 regional winners, will now go through to the NSW Volunteer of the Year awards to be held at the end of November.

Check out next weeks paper for an in-depth interview with Helen.