Mrs Bungard said she started going to the monthly meetings of the Waihola-Clarendon Women's Institute 60 years ago, when friends encouraged her.
''They said 'Come along, you'll learn something' and I learnt a lot. I was only 18, so I didn't know much.''
About 80 of the 145 members attended the Mid-Otago Federation of Women's Institute annual meeting at the Fairfield Community Hall, Dunedin, yesterday.
Long-service awards were given to members of the federation's seven institutes.
Mrs Bungard said she was ''thrilled'' when she accepted the 60-year service badge.
Public relations officer Rosemary Isaac said Gaynor Finnie, of Abbotsford, and Maureen Cadzow, Dot Donnelly and Vera Liddell, of Janefield, were given 50-year service badges.
Norma Renfree and Kaye Anderson, of Green Island, and Dorothy Hey, of Abbotsford, were given 40-year service certificates.
