Narre Warren SES has won the highly coveted STORM Award after being declared the busiest unit in the southern metro area.
The team was presented their award during the annual SES Central Awards dinner held in Melbourne on 27 July which reflects the hard work and achievements of the dedicated SES volunteers.
Narre Warren SES responded to the most requests for assistance with 600 storm related jobs in the City of Casey in the past financial year.
The unit’s controller Damian Burns said he wasn’t surprised the unit received the award after attending more than 160 storm related jobs on 30 January alone.
“Covering an area of more than 400 square kilometres, the City of Casey is one of the largest patches in Southern Metro, and it’s continuing to grow,” he said.
“For our unit, this means a very large community that requires our support.”
Mr Burns added that each year the unit’s members collectively volunteer more than 30,000 on-call hours to crew the SES vehicles and more than 8,500 on-call hours triaging events.
“What amazes me most is that some people are in disbelief when they learn that we’re not paid for the hours we put in – even it’s 2am, Mother’s Day or even the holiday season; we do what we do because we’re passionate about the safety of our community,” he said.
“We have volunteers from all walks of life, backgrounds and professions and they all join for different reasons, be it personal or professional. However, what we all have in common is the desire to give back to our community.”
As well as claiming the STORM award, five members of the unit were recipients of long service awards, namely:
• Damian Burns, 10 years long service
• Anthony Jackson, 10 years long service
• Cheryl Cross, 10 years long service
• Sally Higgs, 5 years long service
• Tristan Higgs, 5 years long service
Mr Burns added how incredibly proud he was of the unit and the dedication of every member.
SES Narre Warren is also excited to announce that it will soon be launching its youth programme. Open to those aged between 15 to 18, the unit will be hosting an information night on Wednesday 28 August at Vesper Drive, Narre Warren.
