Yesterday, Jennifer Reeves wrote a touching message about her mother Carole Caswell in celebration of both International Women's Day and Carole’s achievements over the last 30 years during her time as Chair of Rural Lifestyle Options Australia. ✨
Carole has recently been recognised as a Lifetime Ambassador of Rural Lifestyle Options Australia in addition to recently receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to the organisation over the past 30 years. 🙏
We would like to extend our sincerest congratulations to Carole and from the bottom of our hearts thank you for everything that you have done to make Rural Lifestyle Options Australia what it is today. 💖
You can read Jennifer’s original post below. 👇
"It's quite fitting that on International Women's Day, I am writing to say how proud I am of our wonderful Mother, Carole Caswell.
Recently, Mum resigned as Chair of the Board, after volunteering for an amazing 30 years of her life with a disability group now known as Rural Lifestyle Options Australia. Mum has given up so much of her time, has had to make many decisions, sometimes under challenging circumstances and has moved with the various organisational changes throughout the years, including seeing NDIS rolled out.
I remember I was 18 when Mum started a committee with a few parents in the Beaudesert & Jimboomba community who wanted a meaningful future for their children with disabilities, and for them to reach their potential. They applied for their first grant from Qld Gov't to start the ball rolling... and that's how it all started, 30 years ago. RLOA now employs 237 staff and they support 430 participants like my brother Martin.
Mum has now been awarded the very fitting title of "Ambassador" of RLOA, along with our dear family friend Ann Armstrong.
Martin would not be the wonderful, confident & jovial man he is today without the support of RLOA. Dad was Martin's full-time carer and when Dad passed away, Mum was still working full-time & I don't like to think where Martin would be today without RLOA. Martin may not know what Mum actually did at RLOA, but he certainly knew that she held some sort of importance there, which he loved being part of if he saw Mum when she visited for meetings!
To Mum... through all the adversity that life has thrown at you, you amaze me with your resilience, positivity and your outlook on life - and your dedication as a parent to provide the best life possible for Martin. I speak on behalf of darling Dad, dear Jayne & our special Marty when I say YOU ARE LOVED so much by me and by so many. Now you can say that you are fully retired! You can put this award proudly next to your Australian of the Year Award, Regional Local Hero 2007!"
To learn more about how Rural Lifestyle Options Australia enriches the lives of the people we support, please visit www.rloa.org.au
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