By Casey Neill
Avocare founder Trish Keilty is passionate about helping those in need in whatever way she can.
“Whether you need a mattress or you need food or you need a resume, it doesn’t matter, we’ll make sure we get it done,” she said.
A teen came to her last year seeking a suit for his school formal.
“We fitted him out here with the smallest suit pants that we could find,” she said.
Ms Keilty was named the Greater Dandenong Citizen of the Year at the council’s Australia Day Festival in Dandenong Park on Friday 26 January for her efforts with the social enterprise since 2003.
“I was overwhelmed and I think there’s a lot more people who probably could have got it besides me who do amazing things in this area,” she said.
“I set up Avocare to be a sponsor for work for the dole projects.
“We’d run over 150 work for the dole projects before we got our first warehouse.”
That was with Foodbank back in 2008 to service 35 charities.
That’s grown to more than 100 charities, another partner in SecondBite and a large site in Dandenong South.
“We’re also heavily involved in material aid,” Ms Keilty said.
She’s working with other Dandenong organisations, including Cornerstone Contact Centre, to support the homeless.
“We’re all good at what we do but a combination can make us much stronger,” she said.
“I have a passion for helping people.
“My background is human resource management.
“People need help in different ways but if they have a job they can help themselves.
“I have a graduate diploma from the National College of Industrial Relations in Dublin. That was in 1989.”
Ms Keilty moved to Australia from Ireland in 1974 with husband Bernard and settled in Dandenong.
The couple and their daughter moved to the Sunshine Coast for a time. While there Bernard fell from a balcony.
Doctors said he would be a paraplegic, so they moved home in 1989 to lean on family for help.
It was then that Ms Keilty completed her study.
Bernard made a remarkable recovery and has worked alongside his wife at Avocare for the past 15 years as a van driver.
They’re encouraging a new generation to follow in their footsteps through their three grandchildren.
“I think kids take for granted that everybody gets and has what they have,” Ms Keilty said.
Her grandchildren pack up their old toys each Christmas to donate them.
“You can instil something in them that they might carry with them,” she said.
Here are more inspiring people from Dandenong:
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