Brigade celebrates volunteer services

WITH many of the region’s fire brigades holding belated awards nights throughout the year, it was Shelford’s turn to honour its volunteers over the weekend.

Taking place on Saturday, more than 30 members took part in the brigade’s the first service awards ceremony in close to a decade.

Shelford CFA community safety coordinator Stephen Gilligan said the range of medals highlighted the breadth of experience in the team.

“We had a lot of people with five-year medals which shows we’ve got a lot of newbies. It’s a good thing for us because it means we’ve got a lot of people coming up,” he said.

“Then our oldest member, we recognised 50 years for him. We totalled 865 years of service that afternoon. We’ve got a good spread of younger members and longer-serving members.

“This means there’s a whole heap of people there that this town can rely on if there’s an emergency.”

The event saw 32 medals handed out by Brendan Lawson, Assistant Chief Fire Officer for District 7.

Many brigades service award ceremonies have had to be delayed due to the pandemic, with Mr Gilligan estimating it’d been about seven years since Shelford’s last one.

Mr Gilligan received his own award for 15 years of service and said it was great to be acknowledged.

“I’m a believer in serving the community,” he said. “To have those years of service recognised was an honour.

“The atmosphere was fantastic. We started off with a barbecue lunch and got to tell old war stories. We’re looking forward to supporting each other this year into the next fire season.”