WHEN she started playing tennis as a youngster, Peg Hanrahan was told it was about more than hitting a ball over a net.
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Her dad emphasised it was just as important to volunteer time to keep the club ticking along.
“My father said ‘now, you don’t just play tennis you know, these things don’t just happen’.
“That has stayed with me all my life.”
Mrs Hanrahan, a Corowa great-grandmother, has spent decades volunteering her time for groups right across the community.
She has three sons, two daughters, 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Today her work is recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to the Corowa community.
Mrs Hanrahan said the award emphasised to her how there were many more in Corowa “as worthy or more worthy of the award than I am”.
“I accept it, though, with thanks and gratitude,” she said.
She is a past president and secretary for the Corowa Catholic Women’s League, of which she has been a member for 43 years and life member since 1991.
She is a also past president of the RSL’s women’s auxiliary, having been a member since 1981 and life member since 1994.
Mrs Hanrahan is the current acting chairwoman of Albury Legacy’s Corowa branch.
“I lost my first husband when my children were small and I had to be mother and father to them,” she said.
“Therefore I took a great interest in all their sporting activities.
“But those activities don’t come without the help of the community to keep them going — like football clubs, tennis clubs.
“That’s why I have always been interested in being part of the committees that go with those groups.”
Above everything else, Mrs Hanrahan does what she does because “I love people”.
“For some part of my life I haven’t been very well off, but there are always people who need help,” she said.
“It’s not a chore to me, I just love being part of it all.”
Mrs Hanrahan said she couldn’t have done it all without her family.