By Riahn Smith

Half a century of Shepparton history will be detailed in a special book to celebrate the 50th birthday of Shepparton Villages.

The book will chronicle the joys and challenges of the not-for-profit aged-care service and is to be written by historian Stella Barber, the author of Goulburn Valley Grammar School's history.

Shepparton Villages chief executive Kevin Bertram said the organisation wanted to recognise the achievement as well as the efforts of Rotary Aust:rqlia in establishing the service 50 years ago.

"We wanted to celebrate 50 years, we thought that was an important milestone and our journey has been a fantastic one ... so the board said this is an opportunity to let the community know what the history has been until now," Mr Bertram said.

"We've been through floods, we've been through interesting challenges like the Federal Government not giving us as much money as we think they should ... but be that as it may, we've had such great community support over 50 years that we wanted to say thank you and show people, in a book, what we've done with their help."

Shepparton Villages last week announced a $5000 donation by the Sir Andrew and Lady Fairley Foundation to help publish the book.

Foundation chairman Andrew Fairley, who will write the book's foreword, said he was honoured to be involved with the project.

"My aunt, Nancy Gaylard, was a resident here for a number of years and this was very good to her," Mr Fairley said. "The passion that's gone into the development of this (organisation) over 50 years really is symptomatic of the generosity of this community and the recognition that as you have changing demographics, you're going to have bigger needs for older people."

The book will be published locally and is due to be launched in November this year.

For more information, or to pre-order a copy, phone Vicki Glazner on 5832 0855.

As printed in the Weekend Shepparton News, Saturday, March 9, 2013