Beaudesert’s netball community celebrated four decades of delivering the sport locally and looked with passion to the future at Beaudesert and District Netball Association’s 40th anniversary party.
The grounds were filled with players and supporters, committee members and dignitaries from across 40 years at the celebration on 20 August.
Beaudesert and District Netball Association turns 40
When people ask Beaudesert and District Netball Association President Deb Love why she dedicates so much time to the sport, her answer is echoed by volunteers just like her.
“Because of the kids. Because of the love of this sport. Because if we don’t work hard on building a community then we won’t have an association for future netballers to enjoy,” she said in an impassioned speech at the association’s 40th anniversary celebration.
“Because at the end of the day it’s not about what we have or even what we’ve accomplished. It’s about who we have lifted up, who we’ve made better. It’s about what we’ve given back.”
Among guests celebrating the 40th were Scenic Rim MP Jon Krause, Cr Michael Enright and wife Jenny, Patrons Brian and Margaret Fechner, life members Merilyn Van’t Hof, Kym Ferguson, Donna Thomas, Sharon Haack and Nat Ford, past and present executive and committee and past and present players.
Mrs Love, who started her journey with Beaudesert Netball 38 years ago when she was 5, applauded community efforts across the decades.
She and also grabbed the opportunity to publicly advocate to the political representatives about the future.
“This great association… was and still is filled with many passionate, driven and outstanding committee members that fought and continue to fight to deliver this great sport to the local community,” she said.
“I am sure a few of you are looking around at our facilities and thinking that not much has changed in the last 40 years, and in some ways you would be correct. We have a fight on our hands to improve our facilities.”
“As a committee, we will be continuing to fight to ensure that we can secure some additional funding and I thank both Cr Michael Enright and Jon Krause for showing their support of us by being here today.”
Guests took a walk down memory lane with a photo display set up by Vice President Susan Wynne, heard from inaugural President Lyn Reedman about when the association began and from Kym Ferguson about the years in between.
They also shared memories from notes written in a memory jar, cut the cake, planted shrubs and watched the representative teams play a game on the courts.
