Wear orange on Wednesday for the SES

LOCAL SES volunteers will be recognised for their monumental emergency services efforts on Wear Orange Wednesday (WOW).

The National Day of Thanks will take place this Wednesday (May 21) to celebrate the thousands of Victorian SES (VICSES) volunteers who serve their communities 24 hours a day, seven days a week through storms, floods, rescues and so much more.

In the last twelve months alone, statewide volunteers have responded to over 35,000 requests for assistance.

VICSES Torquay Unit acting controller Graham Pocklington said WOW was a nice way for the public to recognise their efforts.

“All the hard work and dedication the volunteers put in. They give up a lot at different times.

“It’s nice to just get a bit of a thank you. We’ve seen it a few times where people are wearing a bit of orange, or we are out with the trucks on the day, they seem to recognise us a bit more.”

Mr Pocklington has been a member of the VICSES Torquay Unit for 14 years.

The Torquay SES’s general response boundary is from the Mount Duneed roundabout to Aireys Inlet and back into Moriac and Wensleydale.

Mr Pocklington said he loved the challenges of the role every day.

“I’ve seen a lot, but you still get surprised sometimes.

“I guess the bread and butter of our call outs is about storms, mainly trees on roads or buildings.

“You’re on call essentially 24/7. You just never know when that pager is going to go off. When it’s a windy day you sometimes know, but then sometimes its calm and peaceful and then you’ll be out doing something.

“We also do road crash recues at different times and just assisting other agencies like Ambulance Victoria or Vic Police.”

He said his most memorable day in the field was when the fires ravaged down past Lorne and Wye River.

“We got the call to go assist the Lorne SES unit on Christmas Day, and we were just door knocking the Lorne community to evacuate.

“It was quite confronting from the point of view that the tables still had food on them and there were still presents under the tree.

“People had literally just got up and left. It’s something that has stuck in my mind as something different from what we’d normally do.”

This year’s special WOW is off the back of the VICSES celebrating 50 years of operation.

“We celebrated that back in early March,” Ms Pocklington said.

“We’ve got a couple of our members who have done around that 40-45 years who have seen lots of the changes over the years.

“It was quite a nice celebration to commemorate the number of years the VICSES has been supporting our community.”

The VICSES Torquay Unit presently has more than 15 members and will be looking to recruit members to join the unit in the second half of this year.

To get involved with WOW, the community can:Wear orange on May 21 post a photo or video to social media to say thankyou using the hashtag #ThankYouSES

Host an orange-themed morning tea put up posters at workplaces. Download an SES colouring sheet for the classroom, and Get prepared for the risk of storm or flood so you are less likely to need the SES.

For more information, head to ses.vic.gov.au/news-and-media/campaigns/wear-orange-wednesday