Betty Whitelaw OAM, who organised and founded the Camp Quality Manning Valley Support Group in the mid-1980s, died on August 6, aged 89.
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Born Betty Mary Bonney on March 12, 1927, in Woodford, Queensland, she was one of seven children (and is survived by brothers Lester and Bruce).
She married William (Billy) Brittain and had three children Hilton, Karen and William, who are all still living.
When Betty and Billy moved to Taree in 1971, she worked with Lester in the Bonney Leathergoods factory which had moved from Sydney to Taree in 1970.
She worked there, managing the production of leather handbags, until the factory closed in 1988.
Betty founded the Camp Quality support group in the Manning Valley on July 25, 1986 during a meeting with 13 people in her lounge room. It was the first of its kind in Australia.
For 12 months prior to organising the group, Betty voluntarily worked for Camp Quality (established by Vera Entwistle in 1983) through a different organisation and felt she would like to form a local group.
The group raised a significant amount of money for the charity, which provides services for children with cancer.
For many years she and other volunteers ran an annual camp for the children at Tiona, near Forster.
Betty always held a executive position within the group and spent many years as a president and patron.
In 1988 the Greater Taree City Council buried a time capsule in which Betty wrote a letter to her grandson, who was nine at the time, describing what she could see for the future of Camp Quality.
She received a Medal of the Order of Australia Order in June 2001 for her services to the Manning Valley.
At the time said said, “You wouldn’t do it if you didn’t enjoy it. The children are a inspiration. They are just wonderful and have taught me a lot about life.
“Some people ask me why I work so hard...I can see children needing help and there was nothing in Australia to help kids in the beginning.”
As one fundraiser for Camp Quality, Betty arranged for a friend, Leila, to crochet red, white and blue spiders which Betty organised to go out to bowling clubs State-wide. It was a novelty event for the bowlers to raise money.
Some years after Billy died, Betty married Jack (Nip) Whitelaw. Nip lived in Taree and, as a veteran, was involved in the RSL.
When Nip died Betty moved back to Queensland to Howard, near her son Hilton, who still lives there
Betty lived in Taree for 34 years, between 1971 and 2005.
