Katrina Ogden dedicates a decade to helping others
Wanalta farmer Katrina Ogden has dedicated the past decade to helping children play, learn and live. This is her story.
Northern Victorian farmer Katrina Ogden has been a driving force for her community and families in need, a passion inspired after relying on the Royal Children’s Hospital one decade ago.
That drive has since seen her help raise nearly half a million dollars for children with cancer and their families, through the long-running Shearing for Kids with Cancer fundraiser, as well as tens of thousands more for the RCH Good Friday Appeal.
“I try to help out wherever I can,” she simply said.
Ms Ogden, 39, and her husband Bill are parents to William, 14, Heath, 12, and Thomas, nine. In 2013, Heath, then just 15 months old, needed surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital while recovering from pneumonia.
“The staff were very good to Heath and to us while we were there,” she said.
“While we were waiting for our boy to come out, we were sitting with half a dozen other parents and it felt like the end of the world.”
Each year since that ordeal, Ms Ogden and her family organise 10 lambs to sell from their Wanalta farm for the annual Good Friday appeal, raising more than $50,000 since 2014.
In 2014, Ms Ogden helped begin the Shearing for Kids with Cancer event after Wanalta’s Lori Perry, now 13, faced a cancer diagnosis at three years old.
She co-ordinates the event with her husband Bill, and hosts Bill and Val Barlow, 60 volunteers and 15 shearers.
They managed to raise $101,898.69 in this year’s 10th annual event, with funds going toward finding cancer cure and helping accommodate families near the Royal Children’s Hospital.
“It was unreal, it blew us out of the water,” she said.
At home, Ms Ogden manages a 2000-head flock for commercial lambs and wool on about 1000 hectares, with canola, wheat and oat cropping.
“Most mornings, especially when our ewes are lambing, I get up and deal with the kids, put them on the bus and send them to school,” she said.
“Then I go and do two or three mobs of sheep, feeding up in general.
“It’s busy during harvest and sowing times, I’ll be doing a lot of food deliveries.”
Ms Ogden is the vice president of the Rushworth Football Netball Club, and team manager of its under 15s football team.
She plays A-Grade netball for Rushworth, has played more than 350 club games and was awarded life membership in 2019.
“I love my sport,” she said.
Ms Ogden is also the president of her local Parents & Friends committee.
“We run some fundraisers throughout the year for extra funds for the school to help our kids,” she said.
“They’re only little for a short time and I try to help them as much as I can.”
Katrina Ogden has been nominated for the 2024 Shine Awards, which celebrate the achievements of rural and regional women across Australia. Click here to nominate an outstanding woman you know.
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