Tomorrow is Wear Orange Wednesday, which is an opportunity to express thanks to the SES volunteers, past and present, for everything they do when they pull on their orange overalls to serve our community.
Unit Commander at SES Yass Rob Bolin described the day as a ‘pat on the back for the volunteers”.
The SES Yass branch will be holding a sausage sizzle out the front of Miller’s Pharmacy to celebrate the day.
“We’re not raising money; we’re literally having a sausage sizzle and giving away those sausages so people can come down and have a chat with us and see what volunteering with the SES is like,” he said.
Whilst the day presents an opportunity to give thanks to our SES volunteers, there is an extra to the show of colour.
“Wear Orange Wednesday’s is for the community to thank SES, but it’s also a promotional, recruiting tool.”
“We’d always like more recruits; many hands make light work.”
“At the end of the day, we’re there to help the community in their times of trouble, and we always need more people lifting, carrying, tarping, chainsawing etc,” said Rob.
In recent history, SES Yass has supported the community throughout the bushfires in early 2020, the floods of the NSW north coast in March and Cyclone Seroja in April.
On an individual level, Rob thanks the SES for his own personal development.
“I got into the SES because I wanted to give back to the community and help the community in their time of need.”
“I’ve learnt quite a number of skills and developed my teaching as one of the trainers down at the unit now, which is helping train the next generations of SES members to be able to go out there and help the community,” he said.
Whilst Rob would like to see people wearing orange tomorrow, he understands it isn’t exactly a staple of everyone’s wardrobe and would be more than happy to see people just coming down to share a sausage sandwich and chat.
If you can see yourself in orange, reach out to Rob and the Yass SES team or visit them tomorrow at their street stall barbeque.
Max O’Driscoll
