The fourth annual Rotary Districts and Clubs of NSW and ACT Emergency Services Community Awards 2018 were held on Friday evening, June 1 in the Grand Ballroom at the Bankstown Sports Club.
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Grenfell’s Bill Atchison, one of the four finalists in the NSW State Emergency Service (SES), was present with his wife, Jan, and their son, Neil and his wife, Kate from Sydney.
Rotary Club of Grenfell President, Ross Craven and Rotarian Ron McLelland and former member and Past President Jan McLelland and said they were only too pleased to travel to the Awards night in support of Bill.
At the event, it was also a great pleasure for Bill to see good friend, Robyn Huer (a member of the Illawarra SES) and her husband, Chris (a member of the Oak Flats RFS). Since 2003, Bill and Robyn have worked together as SES volunteers at disasters such as the Toowoomba floods and Victorian bushfires.
The Grand Ballroom catered beautifully for the 345 people present. The function was attended and addressed by dignitaries including the Governor of NSW, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley, AC DSC |Ret’d), The Honourable Troy Grant, MP and Minister for Police and Minister for Emergency Services, and the Commissioners for the various Emergency Services in NSW and the ACT involved.
The emergency services represented were: Fire & Rescue NSW, Marine Rescue NSW, NSW Ambulance, NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW State Emergency Service, NSW Volunteer Rescue Association, ACT Ambulance Service, ACT Rural Fire Service, ACT Fire & Rescue and the ACT State Emergency Service. Each service category for NSW had four finalists and the ACT had two.
Bill’s fellow-finalists were Keith Dawe (Lachlan Shire Local Controller/Condobolin); William Dodd (Acting Controller/Forster Pacific Palms SES); and Naomi Leviton (Learning and Development Officer/Manly). Naomi was announced as the winner of the NSW SES category. (These four finalists were arrived at out of a pool of 7,000 volunteers.)
An Emergency Services Youth Scholarship of $1,000 was also awarded (to a volunteer aged up to 21 for training and educational materials or equipment). The person who took out this award was Lachlan Sutherland (NSW RFS) from Gulgong.
The evening was very professionally conducted although the breadth of it meant it ran well into the evening. From 2019, the NSW and ACT will conduct separate functions to present their own awards.
For more information and photos regarding the event, see the link:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/RotaryESCawards/posts/
