The joyous Joy Hale

Joy, her husband and their children moved to South Africa from the Forest of Dean in England when Joy was 30 years old.

“Moving to South Africa was an adventure for us,” says Joy.

Joy served in the Rotary Ann’s from 1999 until 2012, and she was elected president for three years in a row.

She is currently raising funds and doing charity work for Esda Retirement Village.

According to Joy, Esda was a big project when she was in the Rotary, and she fell in love with the place and the people.

This was one of her reasons for continuing her work there after leaving the Rotary.

Joy says that she wants to help people wherever and however she can.

She works as a hairdresser from home and a lot of people living in Esda are customers of hers.

Joy works mainly with Esda and even sells books to raise funds.

When asked why she became involved in charity work, Joy said, “I’ve always been a Christian, so I’ve always been involved in charity work and helping people.”

Joy also taught Sunday school and she and her husband were involved in charity work long before they joined the Rotary.

“I think it’s always been in us,” says Joy in regard to working with charities, “it all comes down to what you’re brought up with.”

According to Joy, seeing her mother do charity work and hearing horrific stories in the hair salon her mother worked in while Joy was growing up, made her want to do charity work.

Joy is planning to hold an Open Gardens in Esda in October of this year.

Joy is driven purely by her love of people and, according to her, her love for church.

In her spare time, Joy belongs to a book club, enjoys line dancing, senior aerobics and she also loves reading.

When asked what the best thing is about what she does, Joy said, “Seeing the joy in people’s faces and knowing that deep down inside you’ve made someone’s life a little bit more pleasurable.”

Joy uses the words loving, helpful, generous, honest and reliable to describe herself.

Her least favourite part about being involved in charity work with Esda is seeing the people suffering in the frail care. “And not being able to do more to help,” she adds.

Upon meeting Joy Hale, it is clear that she is a true gem.