JANE Kruger’s mum tells a story of the year ‘Play School Meets the Orchestra’ came out on VHS and Jane screamed for it every time the ad came on television.
The year was 1992 and little Jane received that VHS for Christmas.
Jane is now 34 years old with a family of her own and a love of music that’s shaped her life.
Jane’s love of music ultimately led her to Beaudesert.
The instrumental music teacher grew up in the Redlands and spent four years teaching in the small rural town of Monto, west of Bundaberg, after university.
Jane put in for a transfer anywhere south of Gympie to be closer to her parents and landed in Beaudesert in 2016.
She met her now-husband Vincent at the Boonah Community Band on a Monday in 2016. They saw each other again at a local dance that Saturday and were married in 2019.
Jane’s attitude to volunteering is like a breath of fresh air.
“If nobody steps up it won’t happen, and those small community things need volunteers to make them run,” she said.
“We can sit there and complain things aren’t happening or suck it up and do it.”
Jane is Treasurer of Hillview Hall Committee, Treasurer of A Choired Taste and a volunteer trainee with the Australian Breastfeeding Association, working toward a Cert IV in Breastfeeding Education.
She previously served as President of Boonah Community Band, Conductor of A Choired Taste, Secretary of the Monto school P and C before she was even a parent, Secretary of Redland City Bands and Secretary of the former Gem Rally Inc fossicking event when her dad was President.
Jane, Vincent and their two-year-old son Timothy do things as a team.
When Timothy came along, the couple adapted their lives rather than giving up doing what they love.
Their energetic boy brings young blood to the region’s old-time country dances, choir and band practices and keeps everyone on their toes.
Jane’s face lights up when she talks about becoming Timothy’s mum.
“It changes your perspective, doesn’t it? They become the most important thing. Timothy needs us both, we’re his favourite people at this point in time, which is nice,” she said.
“Every month is better, that little personality coming through, his sense of independence.”
Teamwork makes Jane’s heart sing.
“With instrumental music, particularly concert bands, you’ve got so many different colours. The flute sounds very different to a trumpet, to the drums, but you can put it all together and make a piece of music,” she said.
“Teaching music, I like seeing when kids start to get it and go, ‘ooh, this actually sounds like a song now.”
