Drakesbrook Despatch September 2011 Newsletter
Article Date: 30th October, 2011 | 232 Views | 0 Comment(s)
Recently a few of our officers have been lucky enough to attend the 2011 St John Ambulance Country Conference. This conference is predominantly for Volunteer Ambulance Officers and aims to bring together vollies from right across the State for networking and knowledge sharing. I opted to go on the Friday of the conference and was extremely lucky to hear one of my heroes speak, Dr Charlie Teo, controversial Neurosurgeon and pioneer of keyhole brain surgery (as seen on the series "RPA"). Charlie (as he likes everyone to call him) is charismatic, passionate and not afraid to speak his mind spoke about his work across the world and in Australia and continually stated that he was "blown away" by the work that he now realises that Volunteer Ambulance Officers do. Mark T and I were lucky enough to get books signed by Charlie and have our photo taken with him. I'm not sure whether I actually managed to speak when I was standing next to him. Probably the first time I've ever been speechless! Yes I was a tad excited to meet my hero..... Oh and my book got signed "With Love" and had kisses at the end... Mark's didn't hehehehe
We were also lucky enough to hear from David Thomas, General Manager, St John Ambulance South Island Region, Christchurch, New Zealand. David spoke on "Community Resilience - The Christchurch Earthquake Lessons Learnt. David's presentation was an eye opener as he took us through from the time the earthquake happened to 72 hours after the earthquake. All I can say is that I hope we never have to encounter a situation like the Christchurch Earthquakes. I take my hat off to the emergency services in Christchurch (both paid and volunteer) and to those that were flown in from the North Island and other areas to work under what were extremely stressful conditions.
Other presentations at the conference were given by Allan Newbold, Critical Care Paramedic, Helicopter Rescue Service (Rescue 65); Dr Rob Radici, GP, Royal Flying Doctor Service; Dr Fiona Wood FRACS AM, Winthrop Professor, BIRU School of Surgery UWA; Dr Jamie Rankin, Head of Cardiology, RPH; Timothy Marney, Under Treasurer of WA. All in all it was a fantastic conference that we all enjoyed.
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
The AGM of St John Ambulance Waroona Sub Centre was held on Monday 15th August 2011 at the Waroona Sub Centre. The following lucky people were voted into the Executive positions:
Chairperson: Trish Witney
Vice Chairperson: Andy Templeman-Twells
Junior Vice Chairperson: Mark Tibbs
Secretary/Treasurer: Carol Racco
On behalf of the volunteers I'd like to say thank you to the people who accepted these positions as it leaves the volunteers to get on with what we are best doing - helping people. Good luck and I look forward to having a productive year in conjunction with the committee.
Volunteers
A St John Ambulance Volunteer is an important person, someone who donates a few hours of their time to put something back into the community.
We are always looking for more people to help our small group of hard working ambulance volunteers. If you can spare some of your time to learn life saving skills and give something back to the community that you live in please feel free to contact our Secretary, Carol Racco on 9733 2122 on Tuesdays or Thursdays between 9:00am and 1:30pm or visit our website www.waroonaambulance.com.au
RETHINK YOUR HEROES. BECOME A VOLUNTEER.
Upcoming Training Nights 7:30pm (come along and experience what we do):
Thursday 22nd September 2011
Thursday 6th October 2011
Take care and be safe!
Judy Chalmers
AAC Ambulance Volunteer
