MARIE Smith grew up with horses and now, in her late 70s, she is still involved as president and chief instructor of the Bega Pony Club, organising rally days and gymkhanas and for many years she was a State Pony Club equitation judge.

Marie and her husband Charlie arrived in Bega in 1967 when Charlie took a job as a stock and station agent.

Shortly after their arrival, Marie joined the Pony Club and about the same time she and Charlie convened a meeting in their home that resulted in the establishment of the Bega Showjumping Club. 

Her contribution to the sport has been recognised with life membership of both the Pony Club and the Showjumping Club.

Marie has also dedicated many years to the Bega Agricultural Pastoral and Horticultural Society as a trustee of the Bega Show Society Trust for more than 30 years and as a member of the Show Society.  

She was the first woman to be elected president of the society and is still an active member.

She has also been granted life membership of the Show Society.

She says she has always loved horses and encouraged her three sons, Stewart, Neale and Jamie, to ride and to play sport.

She says horses can teach young people many lessons – they have to be fed, groomed, trained and ridden - which take time and dedication and don’t leave much time for getting into trouble.

Membership of a pony club is also valuable as the young people learn to mix with different types, to love and care for their horses and to be nice to each other.

Her interest in young people is reflected in her involvement with the Bega Primary School Breakfast Club where she has come to know hundreds of children from around the Valley, many of whom treat her as an honorary Nan.

Marie also participates on the flower roster at St John’s Anglican Church.

She trained as a nurse in Bairnsdale and, after a refresher course when her children were in school, she returned to nursing at Pambula Hospital and in pathology at Bega. 

JANITA Fernando was introduced to volunteering 18 years ago when her eldest daughter started primary school.

Janita joined the P&C committee and found herself as treasurer at the very first meeting. She held that position for two years.

Soon after that Janita became the treasurer for the Merimbula Youth Centre Steering committee and remained there for eight years.

It was in this position she helped to organised skate comps, youth discos and the Merimbula Lake New Year’ Eve fireworks for many of those years.

Since then she has gone on to initiate or organise projects to support her Merimbula community or individuals she has identified as needing a boost.

For example, she started the Merimbula Cash Mob two years ago to help local businesses survive the incursion to small towns of multi-national supermarkets and petrol stations.

Each month a “mob” descends on a local business, each armed with at least $20 to spend on goods or a voucher for use later or as a gift.

The cash mob numbers have ranged from six to 46 and some of the Facebook posts have had over 2000 views.

For the past two years, Janita has worked with her husband Jeremy and friend Christine to hold a Christmas Day lunch in Twyford Hall for people who do not have anyone to share the day with.

She works throughout the year to organise donations of food, gifts and decorations and volunteers who can prepare food, cook, wait on tables and to take time to sit with and talk to the guests.  

This year she is considering running two lunches – one in Merimbula and one in Eden.

On New Year’s Eve Janita and Jeremy head up a “Red Frogs” style team that feeds and hydrates party goes at Merimbula’s Main Beach/Ford Oval event. 

This year the team handed out 960 free bottles of water, over 20kg of red frogs, over 120 paninis and 450 hot dogs. 

Janita and her husband, along with another couple new to the area, set up a not for profit company 12 months ago to help tradespeople and other workers who have skills to offer but who are unable to find work. 

The company does all the bookings and allocation of jobs, handles the finances, pays GST and so on.  

The Fernandos have now handed over management of the company to their partners.

Janita spent five years as treasurer of the Merimbula Cricket Club, volunteers with Spectrum Theatre Group and organises the rosters for Pambula Baptist Church.

When she is not volunteering she is running a dance school “Bourn-da-Dance” which is now in its 15th year.

She began dancing as a four-year-old with her mother, Elaine Waddell, a local dance teacher.

When Elaine retired, Janita had two small children and did not feel she could devote the time to taking over the business.

However, 12 months later she was missing dancing, as were her daughters and they also missed their dancing friends.

Janita had been approached by many people in the community to start something up so she hired a hall, spread the word and more than 50 people turned up. So Bourn-da Dance began.

She now has 150 to 200 pupils and three staff, teaches four days and has three sessions a week that are for adults only.  

Janita’s latest venture is to sit on the steering committee of a community kitchen for Merimbula, in which she intends to volunteer, fitting it in around her dancing school and other voluntary positions.

Janita says she couldn’t help the community to the extent she does without the support of her husband, parents and four daughters.