EMERGENCY SERVICES ‘VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR’ 2017 Award.

Port Macquarie Rotary Club members examined the nominees & could only split them by 1 –2 points, so it was decided to make them joint winners. Kim Rayner from Surf Life Saving & Bruce Blackburn from the Rural Fire Services were the joint winners.

Inspector Guy Duckworth spoke of Bruce’s remarkable service in the RFS, over 20,000 hours of voluntary service, including the recent ferocious fires at Pappinbarra. Bruce has worked his way through the RFS ranks to the highest a volunteer can attain – Group Captain.
Paul Rayner spoke of his wife Kim’s amazing career as an Unpaid Professional in Surf Life Saving. From being the first woman to obtain her bronze medallion at age 16, 100’s of hours on beach patrol, becoming the SLS Chief Training Officer, supervising over 1000 swimmers to gain their bronze medallions. Honoured by being the NSW SLS Facilitator of the Year.

Our guest speaker at the awards was the Area Controller of the SES (State Emergency Services) Kevin Sherwood who spoke of the way the various emergency services work together in training & rescues. Kevin spoke of how the local SES group with 55 members has had 420 job call-outs (storm, floods, motor vehicle accidents, etc.) in the past year. Our community is truly blessed by having such outstanding men & women working to keep our community safe.