By RUSSELL BENNETT
PEOPLE like Karen Brown are exactly what make small towns like Lang Lang tick. She is community-minded to the core and would lend a hand however she could to benefit the town, and it’s this selfless mentality that led to her being named Lang Lang’s 2015 Citizen of the Year on Australia Day. She recently sat down with RUSSELL BENNETT.
“I guess I’m pretty busy but I do love it. I can’t be one to just be sitting down twiddling my thumbs.”
KAREN Brown’s deep involvement in the Lang Lang community was initiated by some much younger, smaller people.
Karen moved to Lang Lang 26 years ago, in 1989, after marrying her husband Peter. She was born in England but prior to her move to Lang Lang lived in Drouin and worked at the butter factory.
Her involvement in all things Lang Lang, however, switched up a gear when her children started at playgroup.
“It started then, when they were little, and it’s just gone through to school, swimming and school council.
“I didn’t get very involved with the high school at Kooweerup because I was still involved with the school here at the time,” she explained at her family home, fittingly just a stone’s throw from the town centre.
“I’m not one for sitting at home doing nothing and I don’t go to work because we’ve got our own business.
“The kids are grown up now – they’ve all got their own jobs and lives – so what else am I going to do? I might as well get out there and be with people; roll my sleeves up and help out where I can. That’s what I do and I love it.”
Karen doesn’t see what she does as anything extraordinary, and was shocked to learn that she’d be named Lang Lang’s Citizen of the Year for this year.
But looking through the extent of her community involvement, she was a perfect choice to be awarded the honour.
She has been on the Lang Lang Pastoral, Agricultural and Horticultural Society for eight years – helping with the show and the rodeo. But she’s also involved with the community centre, is on the hall committee, and has just taken the reins of the cemetery from her mother-in-law, local legend Nancy Brown, who’s performed that role for nearly 30 years.
“That’s not a big job though,” she said.
“It’s only when someone unfortunately passes away that I have to organise things there.
“They average about 15 funerals per year so that’s not a very big job but the rodeo and the show society, well we’ve just had our show, which was great, and now we’re on to the rodeo.”
Every fortnight Karen helps set up the office at the community centre and watches while the co-ordinator holds some classes. She’s normally there every Tuesday sewing, and then goes back on Wednesday afternoons. She’s often there on Wednesday nights and Friday nights too.
“It’s not very often at all that I’m home doing nothing,” she explained.
“If I’m home I’ll be sewing or cooking. I’ve also got the garden that needs doing, and I do the books for our own business so there’re always things to do at home – plus the housework.
“I guess I’m pretty busy but I do love it. I can’t be one to just be sitting down twiddling my thumbs.”
Karen said it was her kids who got her involved.
“I always figured I’d like to grow up with them and help them do things,” she said.
“When I was a kid my mum and dad both worked so they couldn’t do that.
“Whatever my kids have done I’ve just got involved and if someone needed something I’d just put my hand up, as you do. People just know me from that, I suppose.”
Karen just loves life in Lang Lang. It’s for that reason that she puts so much time and effort into the town.
“A lot of the members on the show society are of that older age and it’s probably because most people nowadays work,” she said.
“We have working bees during the day but not a lot of the guys can come because they’re working.
“A lot of them are heading towards 70 or 80, which is a good age, but they’re a great bunch of people.”
Karen has been involved with the Kooweerup Swimming Club as a committee member and treasurer for several years. She has also worked as a committee member and treasurer at Lang Lang kindergarten, and she was also involved in playgroup activities and assisted in the organisation and running of this group prior to her children being of kinder and school age.
During Karen’s children’s primary education at Lang Lang Primary School from 1998 until 2006, she worked tirelessly with the parents’ club organising fund-raising events such as catering for various school and community events, fund-raising and working bees.
She also assisted with general classroom activities, clubs and cooking classes throughout the school and was an active participant in the stocktaking of reading resources, covering and cataloguing books. Karen’s duties included treasurer for the parents’ club for many years.
She worked on school council as a parent representative and continued in a community co-opted role for an extra year after her youngest child completed his primary school education in 2007.
Among her seemingly endless other involvements, Karen is a member of the Lang Lang Patchwork and Caritas groups and is involved with the organisation of the St John’s Anglican Annual Flower Show. She is also involved in the organisation of the Lang Lang Annual Quilt Show. This involves publicity, cataloguing and the display of quilts, and the general organising and running of this community event.
As she was called up to receive her Citizen of the Year award, Karen was described as “a conscientious, hard-working and dedicated member of the community who continues to spend considerable hours each week dedicating her time freely.
“She is always willing to commit to assisting on any committee in which she is involved and does so without hesitation. She is held in extremely high esteem right across the community and is regarded by all as a true, genuine and kind person.”
For a behind the scenes look at the Lang Lang Rodeo, turn to ‘On The Land’ on pages 42 and 43.
