{"id":502638,"date":"2026-02-25T07:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502638\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T07:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:17:19","slug":"cranebrook-mum-recognised-for-selfless-devotion-to-cricket-the-western-weekender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/502638\/","title":{"rendered":"Cranebrook mum recognised for selfless devotion to cricket \u2022 The Western Weekender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Heidi Vanderlem.
\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cranebrook mother of three Heidi Vanderlem has been named the Volunteer of the Year at the 2025\/26 NSW Community Cricket Awards.<\/p>\n

Vanderlem was bestowed the prestigious honour after she was nominated for her tireless work with the Emu Plains Cricket Club and Nepean District Cricket Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked when they called me! Things like this don\u2019t usually happen to me,\u201d Vanderlem told the Weekender.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually found out last year, but I wasn\u2019t able to say anything to anyone. I had to keep it under wraps. I knew I had been nominated but that\u2019s all I knew. It\u2019s all anonymous, so I have no idea who even nominated me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result of winning Cricket NSW\u2019s Volunteer of the Year award, Vanderlem has now been nominated for the Cricket Australia Volunteer of the Year Award, which will be handed out during National Volunteer Week in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cCricket NSW put me forward off the back of winning their award. This whole thing I can\u2019t even put into words,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Vanderlem first got involved in volunteering after her kids began playing cricket.<\/p>\n

She started out as a Team Manger \u2013 helping the coach with the young players \u2013 before putting her hand up to be the Junior Secretary at Emu Plains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been looking after the junior teams ever since,\u201d Vanderlem said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also had a stint as the over-arching Junior Secretary for the entire Nepean District Cricket Association, but this season I\u2019m just part of the Committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderlem\u2019s enthusiasm for all aspects of cricket was amplified further when her daughter Leah began playing the sport. A talented young cricketer with the world at her feet, the left-arm fast bowler began feeling uncomfortable at games, according to her mum.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this became more of a passion piece due to my daughter because I went to her games and watched the reaction she was getting from some of the boys about her being a female playing cricket,\u201d Vanderlem said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018we need to start educating others because this doesn\u2019t have a place in our sport in this day and age\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeah is a good little cricketer, and I didn\u2019t want someone with so much natural talent to be bullied out of playing something she is so passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderlem took her activism straight to the top and was one of 40 people selected nationally to be part of Cricket Australia\u2019s Project Inspire, which was created to equip women with the tools, confidence and support to deliver projects that grow the game for women and girls in their community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trained by former Australian women\u2019s cricket captain Belinda Clark,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m now building a traineeship program for women who want to take on leadership roles in committees or associations who may not have the skills from their professional lives. I want to empower these people to get them ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vanderlem hopes to see more people like her get involved at their local sporting club because they too can make a difference in the lives of many.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmu Plains have been a great club to be a part of,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really good club and I don\u2019t think they get enough credit out there for what they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want more and more people to put their hand up to be a volunteer because it\u2019s rewarding and a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nathan Taylor<\/p>\n

Nathan Taylor is the Weekender’s Deputy Editor and Senior Sports Writer. He also compiles the weekly Chatter on the Box TV column. Nathan is an award-winning journalist, who has worked at the Weekender for a decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heidi Vanderlem. Cranebrook mother of three Heidi Vanderlem has been named the Volunteer of the Year at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-502638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}