The CWA at Emerald have found a fun and unique way of celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the association according to Emerald member and divisional president Carol Ferguson – they’re going to the races.
“We’re holding a race meeting in July at the Emerald Racecourse,” she explained.
“It’s a five-race card – the Emerald Jockey Club are organizing it all for us, we’ve just got to do the CWA side of it.
“They have race meetings every month here, sometimes a school will sponsor one and I thought – why not have the CWA sponsor a meeting. So, I thought year and they were quite happy because the schools weren’t doing anything this year.
“We will have a few extra bits there; we haven’t got it all sorted yet. The shows on at the moment so after that I’ll concentrate on that. I have a show to open and judge at this week and in a couple of weeks I’ve got to open the Emerald Show. We’re having CWA members opening Agricultural shows right throughout the state.”
Carol said she loves the comradery and community spirit of the CWA and has been glad she joined a couple of decades ago.
“I’ve been in the CWA just over 23 years,” she said.
“Friends had been at me for years to join, and I said when I retire I will. It just so happened that Emerald had a public meeting because the branch was going to close around about the time, I was thinking of joining so I went along. It’s still going – it’s stronger than ever now.”
The Emerald CWA has about 17-18 members now according to Carol “pretty good for a country town” though of course new members are always encouraged.
“It has changed a little bit over the time I’ve been in – we have two flats which are for people on lower income -we don’t have to do a lot of fundraising now we’ve got the income on the flats,” she said.
“There are a few around the state that have flats – usually for lower income people. It’s very important at the moment, ours are never empty.”
The group keeps Carol busy now she is retired and not just on a local level either.
“I’m president of the Central Highlands Division which is a combination of all the branches in the area, I’ve just finished my first year, but it is my second year, I was division president for three years a few years ago.”
So, what is it like to be a division president.
“Busy,” she laughed.
“I’ve just been sorting out all the emails that came while I was away at our conference.”
