Community Garden’s leading ‘Green Thumb’ honoured

WHEN Sheilagh Kentish was growing up in England, being an active community member was the norm.

“All my family were always doing something, they were always in the Guides or the Scouts, or some community groups,” she said.

“Our parents encouraged that, because it was entertainment for us, but it was just the thing that people did in those days.

“You learnt how to get along in a team, and you learnt that it wasn’t all about you, it was about working towards something, and that you were an important part within that something.”

Beginning her career, Mrs Kentish became a teacher and mother to three children. Life certainly wasn’t all about her.

“I soon found myself in a situation working with people with special needs, and then had my own daughter with special needs, an intellectual disability,” she said.

In Ballarat, she worked at Our Lady Help of Christians and SMB. Having taken some students up to enjoy the Ballarat Community Garden, next to the old Queen Street state school, Mrs Kentish was invited to get involved with the committee in 2005.

“I retired and thought, I want to do something a bit different,” she said. “My life has just been taken over by the Community Garden which is a lovely thing to be involved with and taken over by.”

Now, Mrs Kentish is Ballarat Community Garden’s chairperson, within a very “hands on” committee, encouraging the health and garden education of Ballarat’s youth and elders.

In this role, she dedicates the equivalent of three working days a week, getting to enjoy potting and seed growing, but mostly engaging her “passion for bringing people together as a community to support each other but also to support themselves.

“Here, we do have people with special needs. We have people across the board from professional people, to people who are really struggling to find work,” she said.

“They all come in and they all get their hands dirty, they all grow vegetables, they all have success and failures, so it’s just wonderful and they can support each other in various ways. I’m amazed at what people do.

“It’s just nice that everyone can feel valued and I think that’s really important in our community these days. It’s good fun.”

Being ‘valued’ is an essential part of this story. In Mrs Kentish’s commitment to her active role as chairperson, she is valued deeply by everyone who enjoys the thriving space.

This is why she’s a Zonta Ballarat Great Woman of 2019, nominated by Leo Rennie, a member of the Ballarat Community Garden.

“It’s really lovely. I feel very privileged,” Mrs Kentish said. “It’s nice to have the recognition, I’m honoured.

“I feel very humble that somebody’s actually thought that I was doing a good enough job to be put forward in the first place. It’s extraordinary.

“It’s really nice to have the work I have done acknowledged. I don’t think we celebrate the successes of organisations and people enough, when people do a lot of work behind the scenes.”

But beyond the garden, there’s more to Sheilagh Kentish. She was heavily involved with fundraising for breast cancer organisations and local research, running the Mini Field of Women, because she survived the disease.

“At the time I didn’t experience any bad symptoms except for the cure,” she said. “Afterwards you think, that could have gone either way, I’m a bit lucky to be here.”

With that resilient attitude she’s enjoying life and the treats it has in store for her. With Barry, her husband, Mrs Kentish loves travelling.

Together they have a bucket list and Africa and South America are up the top.

“We were lucky enough in the 70s to catch public transport all the way across to Delhi from Istanbul. It was just amazing,” she said.

“Quite scary on occasions, but you could go through Afghanistan and Iran and Pakistan in those days, so it was pretty special.

“Our family, of course, is in the UK so I’m going back there next month to catch up with family which is good fun.”

When they’re not away, the pair enjoy time with their four grandchildren, and the arts.

Last weekend, they headed down to the Port Fairy ‘Folkie,’ and Mrs Kentish started a storytelling group a few years ago, reading to all age groups, sometimes working with trainee teachers at ACU Ballarat.

“I know I’m supposed to be here for something,” she said, “let’s work out what it’s all about.”