‘Your good work will come back to you’: Val Dempsey on why you should volunteer
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When Valami (Val) Dempsey was 10 years old, her life changed forever.
Looking out the window of her Narrabundah home, she would curiously watch every weekend as a friend of her mothers would don her crisp white nursing uniform—complete with gloves and stockings—and head out for the day.
While Val knew she worked as a nurse in a private doctor’s surgery (and had nursed during the war), what struck her was the unusualness of the woman wearing her uniform on a weekend.
Finally, Val ran after her and asked where she was going.
“She said ‘I’m going out to the Cotter…I’m a volunteer,” explains Val. “At that time there were quite a lot of drownings and it was horrid. And I asked if I could watch her.”
She hasn’t looked back since.
Starting as a cadet in primary school, Val has dedicated most of her adult life to working with St John Ambulance ACT and is one of the Australian Capital Territory’s longest-serving volunteers—clocking up over 600 hours of service in 2021 alone.
Recognised for her life’s dedication to helping others, the Senior Australian of the Year has worked with flood and fire-affected communities, provided first aid and mental health support to those in need, and founded Project Survival, a program that took first aid education and messages into the places drug users frequented.
But after 50 years and countless hours of work within the community, Val has never lost her passion for volunteering.
And with the absolute belief that if you lend a hand, your good work will come back to you, this National Volunteer Week (16 – 22 May) she’s calling for more Canberra locals to give a little help where they can, for the benefit of others and themselves.
“It’s just a basic premise that it doesn’t matter what kind of volunteering you do, what matters is you render a service for someone else, that you are extending some kind of helping hand,” says Val.
”You are a better person for it.”
Praising the mental health benefits of volunteering as well as its role in building communities and creating a better society, Val is calling for more Canberrans to get involved in National Volunteer Week.
Her message for those who aren’t sure where to start is simple: it doesn’t matter what kind of volunteering you do, as long as you’re passionate about it.
“Whatever is behind that door of opportunity, don’t be afraid to knock on it,” she says. “Step through it and find out what’s on the other side.”
“We know that Australia functions because of its volunteers, and this is certainly the case for St John Ambulance. So, put your hand up, stand up, step up and volunteer! It will change your life and the lives of people in your community.”
Joining St John Ambulance ACT at the Volunteering Expo on Saturday 21 May, Val is hoping to inspire future volunteers to come and see what they can do to help—or at the very least learn first aid, a skill she believes every Australian should have.
While the expo will provide a one-stop opportunity for people to find out about all the volunteering opportunities available in Canberra, most importantly it will also provide a moment to say thank you.
And with six million volunteers in Australia changing lives and making the community a better place every day, thank them we should—even if after 50 years Val still doesn’t do it for the praise.
She does it because she loves it.
