Lumen Summer 2018 - Flipbook - Page 24
VOLUNTEERING
Generations
of volunteering
Barbara Kidman and Madeleine Ryan find
the perfect place to pursue their passion
for preserving history.
STORY BY HANNAH KILMORE
U
nbelievably, at 91, Barbara Kidman
is only the University of Adelaide’s
third oldest volunteer.
She is part of the University
Volunteer Program comprising more than
2,800 students, alumni, lecturers, friends, family
and members of the public who provide nearly
70,000 hours of their time – the equivalent of
$2.8 million worth of work each year.
Barbara’s relationship with the University goes
back to the 1940s when she was the first and
only female studying physics.
Her university volunteering career began when
she supervised a computer science Masters
student around the time of her retirement in
1987. Barbara now visits the North Terrace
campus once a week to help out University
Archives.
“I answered an advert from University
Archives in the University’s paper about 15
years ago as it sounded interesting. I’m still
there, and I will continue with it until I die,”
she said.
22
THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
From physics and computer science to archives
might sound like a leap, but for Barbara the
transition made sense.
Barbara helped establish the very first Science
Chapter Alumni Group and later saw an
opportunity to extend her university
involvement by becoming a history tour guide,
indulging another of her interests.
When University Archives set up a volunteer
group to help with indexing and other projects,
Barbara was happy to be one of the first to
participate.
Barbara’s role is to index the University’s
Council minutes, starting with the first Council
Meeting in 1874. “I’m now up to 1908!”
she said.
“As long as I am physically capable of
doing volunteer work, I will,” said Barbara.
“The work and the people are interesting
and I miss it when I’m not there. I think
mainly because of my long association with
the University, I find many aspects
fascinating.”
