Older Person of the Year winner May Brown, left, with her granddaughter Sarah Macgregor and good friend Kathy Roberts. PHOTO/CHELSEA BOYLE
CHELSEA BOYLE
A humble grandmother was the winner of Older Person of the Year at Monday’s Age Concern expo.
Chosen from more than 20 nominations, Featherston’s May Brown modestly said she was “a bit dumbfounded” to win the award because she had read all about the other wonderful finalists.
She recently kickstarted Meals on Wheels in Featherston, and credited Wharekaka Rest Home with being a huge piece of the puzzle to get the initiative up and running.
“It’s taken me a long time to get Meals on Wheels off the ground,” she said.
“Finally, I found Wharekaka.”
While not one to boast, speaking to her granddaughter, Sarah Macgregor, it becomes apparent May has done a great deal for the Featherston community.
May is the treasurer of the Toy Library, a volunteer for Featherston’s Own Charitable Trust and leads a first aid course in Featherston which has been particularly helpful for first-time mums.
She has a simple recipe for getting things done.
“If you start something, you need to find friends,” she said.
“Then it goes.”
For Meals on Wheels, that friend was Kathy Roberts.
“She’s my second pair of hands.”
May was selected from a list of finalists which included Judith Allen, Glenys Hansen, Rod Garden, Pauline McKenzie, Kay Black, Robert Brader and Susan Brader.
Age Concern programme co-ordinator Annette Peters said the expo was the biggest it had ever been, with more than 800 visitors streaming through the doors.
She said May had won the award because of the “wonderful, outstanding, work that she does in the community” which was felt throughout South Wairarapa.
The expo was important so that older people could find a lot of things they needed “under one roof”.
