VOLUNTEER roles are acts of selfless kindness, and after storms swept through Victoria early in 2024, Bass Coast local Bianca Peters felt helpless. She has been part of the Corinella CFA for just over five years, but said she wasn’t skilled in this particular area and felt compelled to get out and help.
In the past, Bianca had met San Remo SES Unit Controller Mandy Chancellor at several jobs and events, so she thought of her first. “Mandy had and continues to be very informative and very encouraging for folks to get on board with SES,” she said.
“CFA has been a positive experience in my life. Through this service, we were introduced to a program called Good Sam, which is another volunteer-based emergency service where volunteers can assist Ambulance Victoria with patients experiencing Cardiac Arrest. Having this behind me in April of 2024, I decided to join the San Remo SES unit.”
Bianca hopes to bring a positive attitude to the team, to learn, and to play her part in being actively involved in the community and assisting during emergencies.
“Some of the initial training with SES is online, and some is hands-on, such as patient handling, search and rescue, sandbagging, and an introduction to road rescue,” Bianca explained. “Recently, we had to complete a fit-for-duty course, involving carrying weights over a distance with obstacles, and I enjoyed the challenge.
Bianca described that although all service training is challenging in terms of new knowledge and skills, she finds juggling time between family, full-time work, and being an active member of both the CFA and SES, the hardest part. “I feel lucky that my family, work crew, brigade, and SES unit are all very accommodating, encouraging, and always there to help me better myself in every way possible!”
Bianca said that the high standard of structured training each week helps volunteers be well prepared for a range of jobs they may be called out to. “We have some very experienced and knowledgeable members at San Remo, and our Unit Controller, Mandy, is always offering extra support and training sessions to catch up. Currently, a few of us are training towards Crew Level 2, and beyond this, we can begin specialist training.
“I look forward to learning more about road rescue, land rescues, and acquiring as many skills and experiences as possible to be as helpful as I can to the team and our community!”
