Imagine if everyone volunteered

TODAY, Tuesday, December 5 is International Volunteers Day.

The theme this year is: “If Everyone Did”.

If everyone volunteered, the world would be a better place, they say; South Gippsland and Bass Coast would be a better place.

In this past week we’ve seen examples of the power of volunteering.

Despite the challenges of Gippsland’s weather, the 300 or more people who volunteered within the Great Victorian Bike Ride organisation, and the locals who volunteered to host them, raising money for their own clubs along the way; they made the event what it was, a big success despite the problems.

But since COVID, we’ve seen community groups and clubs struggling for volunteers to keep them going; everything from local business associations to service clubs and sporting clubs have struggled to attract volunteers.

The pandemic, they say, has underscored the importance of looking after yourself and your family first. Fair enough, but it has also tipped over into making us more selfish with our time. 

Elsewhere however, at the likes of the Korumburra Business Association and Leongatha Lyric Theatre, people have been prepared to answer the call and these groups can go forward now with new ideas and new enthusiasm.

In country areas in particular, where there isn’t the scale of metro areas to provide all services, we rely especially on volunteers to provide the sports and facilities that can’t be provided by government or professional organisations.

Which is why the Community Grants handed out by the Bass Coast Shire Council recently are so important.

The volunteers who step up to support school and community literacy, our sporting, service and social clubs; these are the people we want to say ‘thank you’ to today.

But also the grandparents who offer childminding and other support while their adult kids get back into the workforce to pay the mortgage and address the cost of living. They’re volunteers too and we love them for it.

Also, this year’s International Volunteers Day makes the ‘retirement’ if that’s what it is when you’re a volunteer, of George and Anne Hendry of the registered charity Bryn’s School, after decades of providing schools in remote locations around the world.

George and Anne, and the many, many people who have supported them along the way, have made a real difference, and to them, on this day, we say a heartfelt thank you too!