St John shows appreciation for Event Health volunteers

• 52 volunteers from Event Health Service (EHS) and Youth & Community Engagement (Y&CE) were recognised for their dedication.
• Awards were presented for achieving five years of service and for a yearly total contribution of 250, 500, 750 or 1000+ hours of service.
• One volunteer achieved more than 1700 hours of service in the last year.

St John WA has recognised 52 volunteers from Event Health Service (EHS) and Youth & Community Engagement (Y&CE) for dedicating a combined 60,000 hours to volunteering across more than 3400 events in the past year.

The annual EHS/YCE Volunteer Appreciation Ceremony, held Thursday 3 November celebrated significant milestones of service to the community, including five years of service and yearly contribution pins of 250, 500, 750 & 1000+ hours.

Three volunteers each delivered more than 1000 hours of service, including one who exceeded 1700 hours – almost the equivalent of a full-time job

The EHS division of St John has been the leading provider of first aid and medical services at events across Western Australia for almost 120 years.

Its Y&CE division strives to make first aid part of everyone’s life, from teaching the basics to students from kindy to high school, to demonstrating first aid skills at community events, which helps build stronger communities.

St John WA acting chief executive officer Antony Smithson congratulated each volunteer for their hard work and dedication.

“The reputation of St John is built on the contribution of an army of volunteers including those recognised, who give countless hours to their community,” Mr Smithson said.

“While COVID put a stop to many traditional events, new needs arose across our organisation and the community, and numerous EHS volunteers stepped up to assist Emergency Ambulance with the delivery of timely response.

“Others supported frontline staff at airports and hospitals with COVID-screening and the vaccination roll-out.

St John WA Chair Sally Carbon OAM presented the awards.

“As well as contributing to the health resilience of Western Australia, these volunteers have fun with each other – they are warm and kind, and very committed to their standards of service,” Ms Carbon said.

“These St John volunteers take their roles seriously and I was grateful to be able to say thank you to them on behalf of the people of WA to whom they serve.

“It was uplifting for me to hear their stories of volunteering.”

The event was the first Ms Carbon attended as newly-appointed Chair of St John. She is a passionate advocate for volunteering having been awarded an Order of Australia and Prime Minister’s Award for volunteering in sport.