Kootingal CWA president Pam Wright said it was a huge achievement for both the branch and the nine women, who were awarded with 20-year membership pins.

“Normally you don’t get nine all at once, you might have one or two, and next year we'll have three,” Ms Wright said.

“So to get nine all at once is pretty special.”

The nine women to be recognised were Joan Pettit, Theresa Kuczera, Heather Stokoe, Melva Roberts, Allison Waugh, Dorothea Vaux, June Chen, Pat Ryan and Anne Maher.

They were all there at the branch’s first meeting in 1998, where a group of 23 women met at the Kootingal Country Inn to form the Kootingal CWA.

In the two decades since, the Kootingal CWA and its members have become entrenched in the community helping those who need it most.

“Our whole aim is to help females and their families in all different areas of their lives,” Ms Wright said.

Over the years they’ve supported various medical appeals, donated emergency packs to hospitals, clothes and goods to crisis shelters, and made trauma teddies for local firefighters and those unlucky enough to find themselves in Tamworth hospital.

The Kootingal branch is currently making “knitted knockers” for women who have had mastectomies.

They’re heavily involved with three schools in the region – Kootingal, Moonbi and Tintinhull public schools.

“We like getting involved in the schools, and the schools like getting involved with us,” Ms Wright said.

“Every year the CWA picks a country to study – this year it’s Poland – and the students do presentations on what they’ve learnt about that country.

“Sometimes it’s singing or games, or even paper mache sculptures. So they’re learning as we’re learning.”

The branch also holds a fashion parade each year, with the money raised going to farmers doing it tough.

“We do our best to raise as much as we can, and give it out to those farmers in desperate need,” Ms Wright said.

“This year it’s going to be difficult because nearly everyone is having a hard time with the drought.”

Ms Wright said the Kootingal branch wants to continue its good work and looked forward to helping many more people in the coming years.

“We make a big impact in a small community,” she said.

“We can truly take pride in our past and we are stepping in to the future with faith.”