Family fun at SES open day

Here to help: Leongatha SES unit controller, Tony Lindhard was really happy with how the open day went on Saturday.

THE Victorian State Emergency Service Leongatha unit held its annual open day on Saturday.

Members of the crew were on hand to answer any questions and to demonstrate all aspects of SES work to interested community members.

Leongatha unit controller, Tony Lindhard said the open day is important as the emergency services need to be transparent, and have to show that anyone can come along and say hello.

“People need to know what the SES really does so they feel comfortable with us and so they can see what our funding goes towards,” Mr Lindhard said.

“We are all volunteers, so it would also be great to get a few new members out of it. This unit has about 32 members currently, which sounds like a lot, but it isn’t.

“People have their private lives and things always happen at the most inopportune time, so it is great to have a decent pool to access crews from.”

Mr Lindhard said for the SES, as with other emergency services, people are often unaware of what they do until they need help themselves.

“These open days are great, because it helps people to get to know us, which we are really happy about,” he said.

Visitors to the open day got to witness a rescue equipment demonstration, a crashed vehicle rescue demonstration and a rope work demonstration.

The kids were kept busy with a jumping castle, fairy floss, popcorn and a colouring competition, as well as a visit from Paddy the Platypus.

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Posted by Simone Short on Nov 27 2012. Filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry