By Kath Gannaway
Catherine Crow prefers to ‘fly under the radar’, but as she accepted Healesville Rotary Club’s Ron Goding Award 2017-’18, it wasn’t an option.
The owner of Healesville Stock Feed and Farm Supplies, Catherine has had to step up in ways she never dreamed of over the past few years, and making an acceptance speech, is one of them.
The award perpetuates the memory of the late Ron Goding, and is presented to a business or organisation which Rotary believes demonstrates the highest business and ethical standards.
When introducing Catherine at the Rotary Dinner, director of Vocational Services John Robinson expanded with a brief history.
Catherine married Bryce Crow 20 years ago, and together with his father Jim operated Crows Transport. They had two children, Mitchell and Georgia, and as a family were active in business and in the community.
They purchased the stockfeed business 12 years ago with Bryce at the helm, making all the day-to-day decisions and doing the heavy work.
When Bryce died of melanoma in 2014, Catherine was left with a young family and a business she partly understood – flying under the radar was not an option!
Mr Robinson said Catherine rose to meet the challenge and told him that to some extent the business had saved her, saying that she realised she had to grab hold of it for the sake of her family.
“Since then she has learnt to lift 40 kg bags of chaff, split wood and stack firewood into those half metre crates.
“More importantly, she has grown the business and kept the family together as a close unit with the all- important values of love, respect and honesty.
“She is certainly a worthy winner of this award,” Mr Robinson said.
Catherine said it was a privilege to receive the award on what had been a very emotional night.
“Bryce would have been proud … and I would have been happy for him to do the speech instead of me,” she said.
Catherine thanked Rotary for the recognition, and her customers and others for the support she and her family has been receiving.
“Ultimately, our customers put food on our table by coming in, and they seem happy with our services and friendship,” she said.
Mr Goding’s grandson, Josh, presented the award.
