Wally and Carole O’Hara are two extraordinary volunteers responsible for transforming community gymnastics in Armidale, New South Wales.

Teaching gymnastics wasn’t always Wally and Carole’s passion. The two Sydney school teachers followed their children into the sport after moving to Inverell, in northern New South Wales, and taking their daughters along to recreational gymnastics classes at the local youth club.

It wasn’t long before the club’s head coach found out that Wally and Carole were teachers and invited them to train to become qualified coaches. Shortly afterwards the head coach left Inverell and so the O’Haras took over. The couple knew they couldn’t run the club on their own so they formed a cooperative coaching group with other parents and the club’s popularity increased dramatically.

Wally and Carole’s experience in Inverell transformed their love of teaching into a passion for helping children to become top gymnasts. This passion increased throughout their 1991 transfer to teach at Armidale City Public School and the couple decided to establish their own afterschool gymnastics club.

In its early days, Armidale City Gymnastics Club only had 25 children enrolled, but this number soon grew to over 120: far too many for the school’s small auditorium. Wally and Carole searched for a new site and eventually made an arrangement with Armidale High School to use their gym without charge. The club’s popularity continued to grow in the new location, so much so that demand began to exceed even the capacity of the high school gym and, in 2009, the O’Haras opened a brand new facility.

When asked what motivates their work, Wally says above all it’s about being able to guide and inspire children: ‘You can celebrate every accomplishment, pick them up after failure and teach them how they can learn from their mistakes and be better next time, so they learn many life skills in gym.’

Wally and Carole’s club is now approaching 18 years of operation and is currently fully funded by participant fees and grants. Yet, as the O’Haras say, the club couldn’t function without the dedicated volunteers in the local community. Fortunately, given how infectious Wally and Carole’s passion is, it’s unlikely the couple will ever be short of keen volunteers to follow their exceptional lead.

Quick questions

Why did you start volunteering?

Our whole family loved gymnastics and with our kids involved we wanted to lend a hand. It beats sitting there watching!

Why do you continue?

My wife and I ask ourselves this question daily. Basically we do it for the kids. We enjoy seeing them have fun and they reward us by remembering to visit us occasionally.

Most rewarding moment?

Opening the new gym facility, that showed that all our hard work had paid off.

What do you get out of it?

We get a lot of appreciation from the many parents and kids involved in the club. As members of the Armidale Community we are also rewarded by the community with Australia Day awards and other Volunteer awards.