Vera Bond, from Canterbury, has been serving the community by helping people who are blind or have low vision lead better lives. She has worked as a volunteer at Vision Australia for five years.
After she retired Vera felt it was important to remain an active part of the community and that Vision Australia could provide her with the greatest opportunity.
“I retired and had time on my hands to help people. I used to walk to work and so I wanted to keep doing something in my local area. I saw an ad in the paper asking for volunteers and Vision Australia was exactly what I was looking for. Now when people ring they are surprised to get me at home.” she said.
Vera has had a number of roles over the years and enjoys them all. “it is mostly clerical work and data entry but I have also helped out at special functions and gift wrapping at Christmas. I’m happy to do anything to help and I’m given a good variety of jobs. I just like to be helpful. It’s all special, everything that I do,” she said.
Meeting other people is one of the most important parts of volunteering for Vera. “I come in once a week but twice a week if I am needed. There are a lot of people I know in there. If I come in on a different day there are all the Tuesday people or the Thursday people so it’s always good to see them as well.” she said.
Vera‘s achievements, along with more than 4,000 Vision Australia volunteers around the country, were recognised during a special Morning of Celebration on May 8 as part of National Volunteer Week
“Volunteers are essential to our ongoing work we simply couldn’t do what we do without them,” said Rolf Geerlings, Coordinator of Volunteers at Vision Australia
Vera also helps other organisation knitting squares for Wrapped With Love.Download the Vera Bond media release