MERLE Parrish has appeared as a guest on MasterChef twice, written two cook books and won numerous cooking competitions, and this month she is marking 60 years as a member of the Country Women’s Association (CWA).
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Mrs Parrish is a life member of the Cudal branch of the CWA and although she turns 82 in two weeks, she is not slowing down and remains passionate about the organisation.
She will attend the annual CWA group conference at Bathurst today and will continue to help cater for events including a Melbourne Cup lunch and a Christmas Party.
“I joined in the days when it had a junior branch which was called the younger set, then when you married you went to the parent branch CWA, which I joined in 1954,” Mrs Parrish said.
“I think one of the things most CWA people like about it and I completely agree is the friendship and fellowship, once you make friends the friendship is always there.”
Over the years she said there has been several changes to the CWA as technology changed, more country women got jobs and transport improved, however, she has remained dedicated to the organisation, promoting it in both her cook books and when she appeared on MasterChef in 2011 and 2012.
“One thing I feel is that the CWA, they don’t miss out but it’s not advertised as much as they used to do,” Mrs Parrish said.
“I think it’s a shame that we haven’t more younger people in our branches, a lot of our younger women work during the day.
“Unless you have a night branch, which Cudal doesn’t, they cannot come in the day time. “Some do have a night branch and they are doing very well.”
Along with cookery and craftwork Mrs Parrish said there were several activities members took part in.
“When you are a member they do a lot of different things that the public don’t know about,” Mrs Parrish said.
“We study a different country each year. We just finished studying Botswana, next year our country is Italy.
“If there’s a flood or a bushfire we send people to help and a lot of the public don’t know it.
“Another thing the CWA do is quite a bit of catering.”
Mrs Parrish joined the Cudal branch of the CWA in 1954 and has remained a member continuously, except for a 10-year period when the Cudal branch temporarily folded and she joined the Borenore branch until it resumed.