By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
TWO of Greater Dandenong’s tireless community servants have been rewarded for their efforts, winning Victorian Seniors Awards last week.
Merle Mitchell, 78, and Val Lycett, 85, have long been powered by a strong community spirit, and remain actively so.
Ms Mitchell has been part of pioneering social campaigns in Springvale since the 1960s. She won this year’s Promotion of Multiculturalism Award.
Ms Mitchell was part of the public’s fight for a second primary school in Springvale, and the numerous community fund-raisers for the school’s library and canteen.
She remembers the late Springvale mayor Andy Erickson giving out the message to the wave of refugees and migrants arriving in the 1970s. It was “Everybody’s welcome here”. “No one else was saying that then,” Ms Mitchell said. “What it gave us was a harmonious community.”
The community defied outside pundits’ views that Springvale was a problem area. It became a home of choice for migrants because it was welcoming, Ms Mitchell said.
From a public meeting, the Springvale Community Aid and Advice Bureau was born. The bureau set up the state’s first voluntary interpreter service, and the first national program of teacher aides for ethnic students.
Ms Mitchell was also involved with the Enterprise Hostel, the legendary home for 30,000 migrants and refugees from 1970-92.
It was a fruitful support for up to 1000 guests at a time, with on-site English classes, childcare and doctors. “I’ve heard it said these hostels should never have been closed down,” Ms Mitchell said.
Ms Lycett, a Senior Achiever winner, is a community information officer at Dandenong Community Advice Bureau. She has long helped many people in dire straits — the imprisoned, poor, homeless and domestic violence victims.
She was aware of social misfortune from an early age. At school in Hampton Park in the 1930s, she saw children who were wards of the state and ill-treated.
At 32, Ms Lycett became an honorary probation officer in Doveton, supervising children going through the courts.
It was a “problem area”, full of new families working at new factories such as Heinz and General Motors. “You accepted how they were but didn’t condone their behaviour,” she said.
Ms Lycett remains inquisitive about people and things. She says she learnt so much by going into people’s homes, doing courses in religion, psychology and mentoring.
She’s been at the community advice bureau for 32 years, serving 20 as treasurer. “I felt very humble to get the award because there are so many volunteers that do more than I do. It was overwhelming.”
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