MORE than 15 community groups and organisations attended the Moree Volunteering Connection Hub and Expo at Moree Community College on Thursday as part of National Volunteers’ Week.

The expo and volunteer recruitment drive, made possible through the Community Connections – Volunteering Information Hub Establishment Grant program, was supported by the Centre for Volunteering and Department of Social Services.

The initiative, a first-of-its-kind for the Moree district, showcased not-for-profit community organisations and vital services that rely heavily on volunteerism.

Attending organisations included Moree Rotary on Gwydir, Moree District Hospital Auxiliary, SES, Ngala Women’s Refuge, Red Cross Emergency Services, Gwydir Industries, Tourism Moree, Lifehouse, Centacare, Animal Welfare League, Rural Fire Service and Namoi Gwydir Young Members Group, Moree Lions Club, Byamee, Probus and St Vincents de Paul.

Community College CEO Melanie Squires said the expo’s main focus was helping not-for-profits recruit volunteers.

“We received funding to be able to run this expo celebrating volunteering, and to try and get more volunteers involved,” Melanie said.

“It’s about helping volunteering organisations with how they manage and source volunteers.

“This week is Volunteers’ Week and we’re very happy to be part of it. As well as the expo, the Community College in Moree is building a volunteering hub at the campus so if anyone is interested they can come along and get the information they need – it’s ongoing.

“We have a lot of people through our doors, and there are students who maybe have some time they can give,” she said.

Karen Jagers, representing St Vincent de Paul’s in Moree, said there are two arms of the organisation, affectionally known as ‘Vinnies’.

“The first is the engine room – the retail shops – that creates the dollars to enable Vinnies to do the good work they do,” Karen said.

“The money generated by the shops goes back into Vinnies NSW to provide all sorts of assistance to people across New South Wales – from housing, drug and alcohol, rehabilitation, emergency assistance in floods, fire and natural disasters,” she said.

St Vincent’s de Paul, founded by 20-year-old French university student Frédéric Ozanam in 1833, has been operational in New South Wales since the 1880s and was established in Moree more than 100 years ago.

“We have a small team of about 14 or 15 active volunteers who sort through all the donations and get them out to the shop,” Karen said.

“The other part of Vinnies is care and support, where allocated funds from Vinnies NSW supports local people who need a leg-up in times of assistance.”

Moree Rural Fire Service district officer Renee McMillan said volunteerism was vital to the organisation’s ongoing work across a large area of north-western New South Wales.

“Our area covers about 42,000 square kilometres,” Renee said.

“We cover Moree, Narrabri and Gwydir Shires and have about 1500 members that are volunteers.

“There is no way we could do what we do every day, if it wasn’t for our volunteers – we thank each and every one of them every day because we can’t support the community without them,” she said.

Renee said there was more to the RFS than putting out and controlling fires.

“One of the big things for us is that while we have ‘fire’ in our name, that is not the only thing we actually do,” she said.

“We respond to motor vehicle accidents and assist NSW Ambulance when they require it. We also do search and rescue and assist police.

“When anyone needs assistance, they’ll contact us and we’ll have volunteers rushing out the door to go and help,” she said.

“We have aviation crews, catering crews and people who look after communications. The message we want to get to the people who don’t want to actually fight fires, is that doesn’t mean they can’t volunteer with us.

“There are lots of other roles in the background, so anyone interested in doing basically anything, come and have a chat with us – we’ll welcome you with open arms,” she smiled.

Community College CEO Melanie Squires said the expo drew plenty of community groups and vital organisations.

“I’m so happy with the turn-out – more organisations than I expected were involved – and it’s wonderful to see everyone together,” she said.

“Moree is truly an amazing community where everyone pulls together. It’s not until you start digging, that you realise how many people are out there giving.

“We want to work more with the organisations. We can actually do some training around volunteering, and we’d like to start helping people with group volunteers in organisations,” Melanie said.