Mrs McEvoy took on the guest speaker duties at the fauna park’s John Pilley Reserve celebration, where Kyabram policeman Mitchell Bull was named the Campaspe Shire Council’s Citizen of the Year.
Kyabram scouts picked up two awards, announced as the Community Group of the Year and laying claim to the Young Citizen of the Year for Kyabram, teenage venturer Jack Freeman.
It was Mrs McEvoy’s address that dominated proceedings, sharing details of her passion for the Colbinabbin community and how easy it had been for her to adapt that passion to her role at Kyabram District Health Service.
For Mrs McEvoy it was quite a familiar setting, an Australia Day awards ceremony, having watched on in recent times as KDHS board chair Dale Denham was awarded the citizen of the year award.
She was also a good friend of the late Denise Gemmill (and her husband Murray), another former Citizen of the Year. Denise died last year.
Mrs McEvoy shared her birth year, in cryptic fashion, explaining she was born in the same year as Australia changed to decimal currency.
“My father was a farm labourer and a grader driver with Waranga shire for 20 years,” Mrs McEvoy said.
“He took great pride in the quality of his workmanship.
“Mum was a stay-at-home mum until she re-entered the workforce at Rochester’s sewing mill.”
She said he was proud to have inherited traits from both parents.
Her father in law, Tom, was a Waranga shire councillor (pre the Campaspe era) and her husband Ray was one of nine children.
Mrs McEvoy has signifcant sporting connections, not least which is a connection to Hawthorn AFL captain Ben McEvoy, along with an AFLW neice at Carlton and another at netball giant Melbourne vixens.
She said her husband had been a farmer and shearer all his life.
Her daughters Carly and Olivia are primary school teachers in regional towns and youngest child, Mitch, is a media manager for a Supercar franchise in Brisbane.
She has four grandchildren and has maintained a strong relationship with the Colbinabbin community.
“I attended public school at Colbinabbin and secondary school at Rushworth. I then trained for nursing at Bendigo,” she said.
“I completed my university degree part-time while my children were young and then did a shift a week at Elmore hospital, which closed in mid-1990s,” she said.
Mrs McEvoy was campus manager of GV Health at Rushworth, then took on the role as chief executive officer at the Rochester Elmore Didstrict Health Service before eventually landing the key role at KDHS.
"I’ve always aligned my career to family and community,“ she said.
“Being part of a community is what you make of it. Giving back is a key factor and there are no tall poppies in Colbinabbin.
“In my two and a half years at KDHS I’ve often reflected on the similarities to Colbinabbin.”
Mrs McEvoy told the gathering that managing a health service during a pandemic was not something she had ever expected to be confronted with, but was “very proud of the staff” at KDHS.
As part of the Kyabram Tomorrow committee she invited more people to engage with the group.
“We all have the ability to connect and engage. I encourage people to reach out and help where they can,” she said.
“Rural communities look after each other and stand united where they have to.
“Don’t let this pandemic leach you any more.”
