ON Wednesday May 21, VicSES celebrated WOW Day (Wear Orange Wednesday) across Australia. Mansfield community said a loud thank you to our SES volunteers who are dedicated to helping others in time of emergencies day or night or in any weather conditions. Many businesses in Mansfield showed their support by displaying orange in the shop fronts with staff wearing a touch of orange for the day. Their efforts were greatly appreciated. Our volunteers started the day at The Farmhouse. The children wore splashes of orange and had cooked orange cake and food for everyone to share. They thoroughly enjoyed seeing our rescue truck and rescue boat. Our next visit was to Earth Kinder where children from Mansfield Kindergarten enjoyed a session learning about how SES helps people in emergencies and some strategies to keep them safe. The children were amazed to see some of the items that might be in flood water and to understand why they should never walk, play or drive in flood water. Each child enjoyed being in the driver’s seat of our rescue boat and learnt about the importance of wearing life jackets. They even helped us search for and find one of our SES members. Mansfield Primary School children also donned the orange joining a discussion about what SES does to help the community. St Mary’s Primary School students wore orange and made a lovely thank you card which the school leaders presented to our members. In the afternoon, Mansfield SES members joined in the Volunteers Expo in the centre of High St, which was organised by Mansfield Shire Council for Volunteers Week. Many community groups were represented. It was wonderful to see how many volunteer groups exist in our community. Several people asked us about what is involved in joining the SES - both as rescue operational members or as community engagement members. If you are interested in finding out about SES, you are welcome to join us on Wednesday Nights at 7pm and have a chat or message us on our Facebook page or on Messenger. Finally, Mansfield Council lit up the monument in orange as a sign of appreciation.
