A move to Ormiston prompted Brenda Maynard to become a volunteer at Ormiston House – something she has embraced fully ever since.
“I’ve been there ten years – probably a little bit longer but I’ve lost count after ten years,” she laughed.
“Every five or ten years you get a badge of recognition and I was very surprised when I was called out for my fifth year badge – I though oh – I’ve been here five years already? The 10th year’s just sort of slipped by with all of the drama we’ve had in the past few years so I think it’s a little bit longer.”
Originally living at Mt Tamborine when she moved Brenda looked for somewhere new to help out.
“We used to go to the church, the monastery, and I looked over and saw Ormiston House and I thought that would be nice. I volunteered up at Tamborine doing the botanic gardens up there and a I thought – what’s my job here. I thought – Ormiston House.
“I just went along and that’s how I became involved, it was there and we lived close by and that’s my job.”
It also became a nice way of getting into the community and meeting people.
“At this stage of life when you move to a new community it isn’t easy to get to know people,” Brenda explained.
“If you live in a neighbourhood all the people go to work and you only see them at the week so Ormiston House was the right thing for me at the right time.”
Brenda is now a guide at the house.
“Actually I’m a bit of a jack of all trades – I went there and I was a guide,” she said.
“When we have visitors to the house, after they’ve had their morning tea we take the guests around the house, room by room and describe the history of the house and the period furniture. We just have general discussions and enjoy the days. That’s what we do on the week day tours but then on the weekend my Sunday is the third Sunday of the month. I go up there and open up the house and make sure it’s ready for visitors and allocate the guides to the different areas and see that it’s running smoothly and enjoy the Sunday afternoons.
“When we have high teas and special occasions like that we all help out in the kitchen and help with the teas, whatever is necessary, we do.”
