Volunteer Kent Paton gives back to Echuca Neighbourhood House after it supported him in time of need.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
Echuca Neighbourhood House volunteer Kent Paton is giving back to the ENH after it helped him when he lost everything in the floods.
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“I do a bit of maintenance and gardening, and I work at the back doing Foodbank, helping stack shelves and fill boxes for customers who come in,” Kent said.
“I have been volunteering since October last year.
“I volunteer at both neighbourhood houses, but mainly at the High St Neighbourhood House.
“One of the girls here was doing the flood recovery, and my place was wiped out.
“And because she helped me so much, I thought I’d come in and repay the favour.”
Kent is volunteering with ENH up to three days a week.
“It gets me out of home,” he said.
“It is a friendly group, and we all get along pretty well.
“I get to meet new people nearly every day.
“I also go to a few supermarkets to pick up produce a few days a week for Foodbank.”
When starting volunteering at ENH, Kent met with the staff and other volunteers already at the neighbourhood house.
“They just showed me around and asked what I would be interested in doing,” Kent said.
“And I said, ‘Tell me what you would like me to do, and I can do it,’ because I have always got an idea about how to fix something.
“Maintenance needed to be done, so I have done little jobs around the place and redone some garden beds.
“We are going to start a herb garden at Landsborough St, so I have started composting at my property to compost all the rotten vegies we can’t give away.
“We put those in the compost, which will be used as the base of the garden beds.
“We have garden beds out the front of High St, where people can come any time.
“There is silverbeet and a few other things, and people can come and just take a little bit of produce whenever they need it.”
Kent is grateful for the ENH’s assistance after the 2022 floods.
“One of the girls, Cheryl Lee, was in charge of the flood recovery,” Kent said.
“She organised for the Lions Club to donate over $1000 for gravel for my driveway and gift cards to buy bedding and things like that.
“I was lucky; I had some stuff up high, so I didn’t lose every single thing, but I will never recover from it.
Volunteer Kent Paton finds a constant need at the Echuca Neighbourhood House Foodbank.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
“Everything I had put away for my retirement, gone.”
Only some people need to give back to the ENH as much as Kent does, with many different volunteer roles available, depending on your availability and what you would like to help with.
As an ENH volunteer, Kent highlighted the constant need for the Foodbank, which requires volunteers to help pack boxes and sort donations.
Other volunteer jobs you can help with at ENH include being a friendly, welcoming face at reception, answering phone calls and inquiries, or helping in the kitchen with meals.
The community garden gives people access to fresh vegetables, and volunteers are always needed to help with weeding, planting, watering, and general garden maintenance.
If you like golf and taking a shot along the fairway to work on your handicap, you can volunteer at ‘The Royal’, Echuca Back 9 Golf Course, which the ENH manages.
Volunteers can help in the Back 9 Golf Course club rooms by taking bookings and payments, guiding visitors to the clubs and balls to improve their game, or working with the greens team to water, weed and maintain the course.
All volunteers at ENH need to do a police check and a work with children’s check, which the neighbourhood house will help with.
If you can volunteer in any role at Echuca Neighbourhood House, drop in during opening hours or phone (03) 5482 6914.
Echuca Neighbourhood House is at 261 High St, Echuca, and 39 Landsborough St, Echuca.
For more information on everything the Echuca Neighbourhood House does for the community, go to https://www.enh.org.au/
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