AFTER some 45 years of service to Bendigo Rowing Club, Mavis Burnett jokes that perhaps she has earned the honour of having a boat named after her.
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That is exactly what the club has done, christening its new lightweight quad for female rowers after the life member and mentor.
The club will officially launch the Mavis Burnett, a tribute to a woman who has dedicated countless hours to the club over the years, at its annual dinner on Saturday night.
Mavis said the gesture came as a surprise.
“First of all, I thought this can’t be right,” Mavis said.
“But no, I was absolutely thrilled to bits, really thrilled to bits.”
She told the Bendigo Advertiser she first became involved in the club when her children, Stephen and Joanne, started rowing as school students.
Prior to that, she had had no connection to the sport.
“I used to love coming down and watching your own children row, and then met other parents too, that were doing the same thing,” Mavis said.
After a few visits, she decided to join the club and never left.
“It has been just an absolutely wonderful group of people,” Mavis said.
“And what I really love about it, there’s no one in the club that thinks they’re better than anybody else, and they get on so well together… It’s really, really lovely to know that you’re in a club that’s like that.”
In her time with the club, Mavis has been a committed regatta organiser.
She has also served on the social and general committees, and was vice-president for nine consecutive years.
Mavis said there was a time when there were few women in the club, but it was “exciting” to see that had changed.
She has been considered a mentor to many female rowers over the years.
“As far as that goes, I used to encourage the girls,” Mavis said.
Vice president Jesse Sherwood said it was a “perfect fit” to have the latest addition to the club’s fleet named after someone who had given so much time and energy to the club.
The club actively promoted and encouraged women and girls in the sport, he said, with women now outnumbering men on the committee.
Humble about her own contribution to the club, Mavis paid special mention to the efforts of Denis Nihill, saying the club would not be what it was without him.
Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
