24 August 2010

ACT RFS Wattle Day

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Wattle Day Badge

Canberrans celebrating National Wattle Day will be helping local Rural Fire Brigades to keep our community safe this year

Two Australian volunteer organisations with a tradition of service to the Australian community, local rural fire brigades, and the local Wattle Day organisation, have formed a new partnership to sell Wattle Day badges to raise funds for the ACT’s Volunteer Brigades Association that represents volunteer firefighters here in Canberra.

‘It’s a simple message’, said Melissa Riches, Vice President of the Volunteer Brigades Association, ‘Celebrate an Aussie icon and help an Aussie mate’.

Wattle is Australia’s national floral emblem; National Wattle Day is a day to celebrate Australia and being Australian, and the volunteers in our local rural fire brigades show the best of the Australian spirit.

National Wattle Day is celebrated each year on 1 September. 2010 is a very special year because it is the centenary of the wattle day celebrations which began in three states (NSW, Victoria and South Australia) on 1 September 1910.

‘Wattle Day has been used by Australians for a century to raise funds for worthy causes. Using Wattle Day badges to raise funds for a community cause invokes this rich tradition of helping each other on Wattle Day’, said the President of the Wattle Day Association, Terry Fewtrell.

‘We think this partnership provides an opportunity for Australians to express their love for this land in a very practical way that helps an organisation for volunteer firefighters, whose role is increasingly important to the Australian way of life’, Terry Fewtrell said.

‘Wattle is a unifying national symbol and local bushfire brigades unite our community and show us the best of the Australian spirit. When bushfires ravage the landscape, wattles are often the first plants to grow back. They symbolise the resilience and strength of Australians to live with and recover from fire’, stated Terry Fewtrell.

Members of the Canberra-based Wattle Day Association designed and made 1,000 Wattle Day badges to support the volunteer rural fire brigades in our community. The badges will be on sale across Canberra, on the weekend of 27/28 August 2010, for $2 each. Proceeds will go to the RFS Field Day.

ACT rural fire brigade volunteers will be selling badges at shopping centres across Canberra as part of the brigades’ spring initiatives to raise awareness of bushfire preparations.

Badges will be available at:

Gungahlin Brigade – outside Gungahlin Marketplace & Dickson Shops;

Hall Brigade – outside Kaleen & Charnwood Shops;

Molonglo Brigade – outside Bunnings Belconnen, Jamieson Shops, Belconnen Markets and Kippax Shops;

Guises Creek Brigade – outside Erindale Shops and Bunnings Tuggeranong;

Rivers Brigade – outside Cooleman Court and Woden Shopping Square (Corinna Street entrance);

Jerrabomberra Brigade – Kingston and Manuka Square Shops;

Southern Brigade – Lanyon Market Place.

The 2010 field day will be held opposite Bunnings Tuggeranong on Saturday 18 September and members of the public are welcome to come along and view crews competing and have a go at some activities.

Any businesses that would like to sponsor the 2010 Field Day, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Kevin Cunningham on 0448 292 577

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