Benalla Treasures | Graham and Joy Budd’s love of education, volunteering and dancing

Both have called the Rose City home since 1983, but their adventures in education started long before that.

Graham and Joy trained at teachers’ colleges in their teens before both ending up in Lima.

“I’d gone to Strathbogie, then down to the Lima Rural School and Joy was at Lima East,” Graham said.

The two would end up dating, and had known each other for five years when they were married.

But before setting up home in Benalla they had a unique opportunity: a teacher exchange program that took them to rural Tennessee, in the United States, for a year.

“We were at Signal Mountain, which is close to Chattanooga” Graham said.

“Joy wasn’t teaching there, but she did a course at the University of Tennessee.”

Joy said it was basically a year of fun for her, while Graham was in the classroom.

“The first question they ask you when you arrive is ‘Which church are you with?’” she said.

“But we were always busy at weekends, travelling.

“We went to church on occasion, but for many there it’s their whole life.

“Their social lives were built around the church, which was very unusual for us to see.

“Each church has its own light opera club, gyms and other clubs.

“They all have their own trick or treat functions at Halloween.”

And it wasn’t just the social activities that were an eye-opener, the set-up at Signal Mountain Elementary School took some getting used to as well.

“One day I invited all the parents into the classroom,” Graham said.

“Well, I found out you're not supposed to do that.

“But I brought them in, and they loved being in the classroom, and they saw what happened when I was teaching their kids. They even joined in.

“That really made my year because if I hadn't done that, I would have been in isolation.”

One student at the school had a profound effect on Graham.

“I had the inspector call in one day when I was teaching English. He was a bit curious that there was an Australian teaching in the US,” Graham said.

“He said, ‘Do you know that there's a student, a child under the table?’

“I said, ‘Yeah, I do,’ and went on with my job.”

The inspector came back to Graham later and asked why he hadn’t addressed the student under the table.

“I said, ‘Go and have a look and see what she’s doing.’ I’m told you weren’t supposed to treat inspectors like that,” Graham said.

“But he came back and said, ‘Oh, she's being read to by another little girl.’

“I said, ‘Yes, that's right.’”

Graham said the young girl in question was having a difficult home life, and he had allowed her to participate in a way she felt comfortable, which was a bit removed from the classroom conformity generally expected by the school.

But they allowed Graham to teach as he wished.

“Before I left the school, she was also leaving, and she raced away, and came back, and she gave me a hug, and she raced away again,” Graham said.

“She basically had me in tears because I knew what she was going back to.”

That was in 1982, and as Graham and Joy prepared to pack up and return to Australia, they did their best to keep some connections.

One of those was with the Chattanooga Boys Choir, and after settling back into life in Benalla, the couple arranged for the choir of 56 boys and six adults to visit the Rose City.

“They performed at the tech school in Benalla, at the Town Hall, the Art Gallery, and over in Wangaratta Cathedral and in Mansfield,” Graham said.

“And they were all sponsored by Benalla people, and stayed in homes all over town.”

After settling in the Rose City, Graham worked at the Education Department before taking up the role of principal of Benalla East, while Joy taught at Benalla High School.

Since retiring, the couple said they couldn’t think of a better place to call home.

“The size of Benalla is nice,” Joy said.

“But I suppose the volunteer work we do is something we enjoy.”

Graham said they had both been volunteering for many years.

“I’ve been in Rotary since 1995,” he said.

“That’s where our trips to India came from. We met Jimmy Singh, who was running the Awake and Shine School.

“Supporting the school is one of the longest running international programs in Benalla Rotary.

“That’s part of the beauty of living in a small town, so many people are willing to take time to help others.”

Graham was also on the Benalla Hospital Committee for more than 10 years, chairing it for five, while Joy was there as part of its clinical governance.

“We’ve both also volunteered at the Swanpool Cinema, and been involved with the Uniting Church,” Graham said.

“And Joy is chair of the committee out at the Morngag Cemetery.”

When they’re not volunteering, the Budds love nothing more than dancing.

“We dance twice a week at the Senior Citizens’ Centre,” Graham said.

“The dance group brings in people from Mansfield, Shepparton, Wangaratta and Beechworth.

“So it brings a lot of people to town.

“And they’ll often hold dancing exhibitions at the aged care homes.”

Joy said the couple has seen many changes in Benalla over the years.

“The walking tracks around the lake are lovely,” she said.

“When we were first here, it was all swampy and hard to get to, so that’s a big improvement.”