Bendigo's basketball team might have owned the name, but Sue DeAraugo would prove to be a true Spirit behind the club's success.
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And not just for the Bendigo Spirit.
She would serve the Bendigo Health Foundation as board member for eight years, came into the Otis Foundation on the ground floor 16 years ago, and, in 2016, would be one of six inaugural recipients of the Bendigo Women's Community Achievement Awards.
However, that was the public face, the woman, the businesswoman and the philanthropist, who had time for everyone and everything.
But behind the scenes, with the family she nurtured and treasured, Sue was much, much more than just the achiever and the generous giver, which is how most of Bendigo would get to know her.
For Sue, the 18-year-old dental nurse, life would change when she met Paul DeAraugo - a partnership that would also help make changes for legions of people in the decades to come.
First, foremost and forever, it would be family. They wed in 1984 and Kate arrived in 1985. She would be joined by son Alex in 1989 and daughter Eliza in 1993.
These days three children would keep many mothers on the go; but in Sue's family you also worked. Starting in 1986 with the move to Bendigo and Pepper's Deli - plus a butchers' supply business in their spare time.
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Then their first step into the car industry as they opened used car dealership Central Victorian Car Sales in Kangaroo Flat.
That's when the work really started, and seven years later, from their yard of used and hopefully not abused second-hand cars, Sue and Paul made the quantum leap into the new car business with their 2001 purchase of Bendigo Toyota. With Sue running the administration team, HR and marketing - and those three kids.
And her impact on the people she worked with will remain a significant slice of her legacy.
Bendigo Ford owner Travis Holt said he would "always cherish" the 30 years he had known and worked alongside Sue.
"I met Sue through Paul at the car dealership, way back when I was a young cadet salesman," he said.
"We've been business partners and friends for a long, long time, but when I first got to know her, I remember her being a very tough, but driven woman who was all about her family.
"We had probably been working closely together for the past eight years and her passion for the business revolved around community and Bendigo itself.
"She did everything she could to raise money for a number of organisations around town, and they all meant so much to her," Travis added.
Through life with their business, Sue formed those long-standing relationships with Bendigo Health Foundation, Bendigo Spirit and The Otis Foundation.
And they all became part of Sue's wider family, such as the 2014 championship season for the Spirit. The day after the team won its first WNBL title the celebrations were at Sue's home, she and Paul simply threw it open and invited everyone.
"I just do what I do without thinking too much about it," Sue said at the time. "I get enjoyment out of watching things develop.
"When I first joined the Bendigo Spirit board, it was in its infancy - and I knew nothing about basketball, at that stage."
But like everything else in her life, she knuckled down and learnt all about every little bit of it.
"Sue was an amazing stalwart of the Bendigo Spirit and one of the major contributors to why the club started, thrived and has survived," A Spirit spokesperson said.
"She contributed in every way - as a sponsor, board member and importantly a massive advocate for the players and their welfare.
"The club owes her an enormous debt of gratitude."
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She has been involved with The Otis Foundation since its launch, more than 16 years ago, a charitable group whose sole purpose is to help women and their families through the journey of breast cancer diagnosis.
"I was approached by Andrew Barling [Otis founder] to sponsor their inaugural event," Sue once said in a media interview.
"We have been part of that organisation, as far as their golf day goes, for a number of years."
She had been a member of the Bendigo Health Foundation board for the past eight years, approached by its then general manager initially to help with fundraising - once Sue started fundraising she was an advocate on steroids.
Bendigo Toyota is also involved in Bendigo Foodshare and Righteous Pups, which are also the stronger for her time with them.
"Our city is a very generous community - whenever there is somebody in need, usually the community comes together to assist," Sue had said.
But for Sue, family was the thing that mattered most, and if she pushed them at the same pace as she pushed her own life, it was to equip them for when they would be choosing their own lives.
For all her local celebrity, the thanks and the accolades, Sue was also an ordinary mum, with stars in her eyes and a heart bursting with pride, and she and the family made the 2005 trip to Sydney to see their daughter and sister crowned Australian Idol.
Sue DeAraugo's tragic death following an accident at Warrnambool leaves a family and a city unable to say everything they thought they would have years to tell her.
But Sue also leaves a husband and their children rich with love and a city, a community, a home, so much the better for having known her.
She will always remain the spirit holding it all together.
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