Here’s cheers to our volunteers

TWO stories which intersected this week were the premiership triumph by the Leongatha Parrots and the release of the annual crime rate figures for Victoria by the Crime Statistics Agency.

News on both fronts is good, with local crime down nearly 7% and state-wide, it’s down 10%.

And unlike some other locations where footy finals were held, there was absolutely no trouble whatsoever at Moe on grand final day, and everyone got home safely.

The point is, however, that our sporting clubs play an absolutely crucial role in not only providing a healthy activity but also in developing good citizens and contributors to the community, by demonstrating the benefits of putting in consistent effort for a common goal, teamwork, leadership, friendship and all the other great things that involvement in sport provides.

And sure, we need the facilities. As someone said last week amidst all the announcements about hospital funding, neither party has promised anything yet for a new aquatic centre at Wonthaggi and/or Cowes.

A burgeoning community must have these outlets to achieve good outcomes on health, wellbeing and the incidence of crime.

But what we also need is volunteers, especially those who’ve reaped the benefits of their own involvement in sporting clubs.

COVID has hit clubs for six when it comes to the involvement of volunteers, the people who make sport happen, and we really need to do everything we can to encourage and praise those who decide to give so freely of their time for others.

And on that score, if you’ll allow us an indulgence for a moment, we’d like to congratulate our own operations manager, Jim Akers, on being awarded life membership of the Dalyston Football Netball

Club for many years of involvement, including but not limited to the timekeeper’s box.

Well done Jim we need more like him.