Community
12 August, 2026
Marilyn recognised for efforts
COBDEN local and passionate volunteer Marilyn Kimber has received an award from University of the Third Age (U3A) Victoria to acknowledge the hard work she has put into the U3A Corangamite program over the years.
The Tutor Recognition Award was presented to Mrs Kimber towards the end of July in a special ceremony at Parliament House.
Mrs Kimber was the brains behind two much-loved monthly activities for U3A Corangamite, including Travel Tales and Teas and Tour for 10.
Travel Tales invites members to share their journeys from around the world, inspiring an exchange of culture, language and conversation.
Teas and Tour for 10 allows members to visit local places which showcase history, agriculture, gardens, heritage properties and more.
Mrs Kimber has been a dedicated volunteer of U3A for the past decade, committing time and energy into improving the experiences of the local residents of Corangamite.
She said she joined U3A when it first came to the Corangamite region because she thought it would be a great way to fill in her time in retirement.
“U3A was an organisation that was going to fit into my lifestyle because it’s for retired people,” Mrs Kimber said.
“It offered heaps of activities that could fill my retired life once I’d finished teaching.
“There was a meeting in Camperdown for people that were interested in possibly starting a U3A in Corangamite and it snowballed from there.
“Once it started both Gary (Mrs Kimber’s husband) and I became members and we’ve been members for 10 years.”
Mrs Kimber said she was inspired to start Travel Tales with Mr Kimber because they had travelled widely themselves and were interested in hearing other people’s stories.
“Gary and I have done a fair bit of travelling and we just thought that other people might be interested in learning or finding out about the experiences of people who have been on amazing holidays,” she said.
“We’d actually been to a few meetings in Colac for their U3A and they had a program called Armchair Travel and we thought we could do a similar program for Corangamite.
“It’s once a month and it’s been going for 10 years.
“We’ve had a guest speaker once a month for all that time.”
Similarly, Teas and Tour for 10, which was established by Mrs Kimber, has also been held for 10 years, with the U3A Corangamite group having visited many places in the region as part of the experience.
“We pick somewhere in the Corangamite area that would be of interest to our members,” Mrs Kimber said.
“We go to that place and we get a bit of a talk and tour.
“The $10 that we pay goes towards an afternoon tea.
“We’ve been to a lot of places in the Corangamite area.”
U3A Corangamite has approximately 140 members and they were the ones who nominated Mrs Kimber for the award.
“The U3A Victoria organisation sends out expressions of interest to all the U3A groups and if any U3A groups think they’ve got a member that they think deserve the award then they nominate that person,” Mrs Kimber said.
“The nomination goes back and then you hear in a time down the track that you’ve been nominated.
“I was very proud to receive this award.
“I was surprised and I didn’t know I’d been nominated so I was very proud.”
Mrs Kimber said she was thrilled to attend the ceremony at Parliament House as it was her first time there.
“The U3A president and the U3A vice president were the people that presented the award and it was preceded by speeches from members of parliament,” she said.
“There were close to about 30 people in Victoria who were at the ceremony I went to at Parliament House.
“It was exciting to have it at Parliament House as I’d never been there before.
“It was pretty special to receive the award there.”
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