WAGIN St John Ambulance Sub Centre has won this year's sub centre of the year award from St John Ambulance WA.
The centre was announced as the winner of the highly respected award at this year's St John Ambulance Sub Centre Conference on Saturday, August 21 at the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre.
Howard Ward from the Wagin Sub Centre said he was both surprised and excited by the award.
“We’ve got a great little team here at Wagin – there’s not that many of us – but with the support of a caring community it all works very well and we get the job done,” he said.
The Wagin Sub Centre is run by a dedicated group of volunteers who thrive on the challenge of providing a first class service for the benefit of the local community and visitors alike.
Their training is conducted on a regular basis and is of a very high standard, which ensures their ambulance officers keep up-to-date with current trends in both treatment and equipment.
St John Country Ambulance Service manager Paul Gray said the award was a credit to all involved in the sub centre.
“I’m constantly amazed at what people will do for the good of their community,” he said.
“Volunteers donate so much of their time to help others – this award just again highlights what an incredible job they do.
“Everyone at the Wagin Sub Centre can be very proud of their efforts.”
The Wagin Sub Centre provides an ambulance service to more than 1900 people.
At the start of last year, the Wagin Sub Centre went through a difficult period, having had to vacate their premises due to significant contamination issues and also dealing low volunteer numbers.
Determined to turn things around, the Wagin Sub Centre held several meetings involving all sub centre members to address the areas of concern head on.
The sub centre’s commitment to getting things right can be seen today.
With a committed group of trained officers sharing the workload and ensuring equipment and vehicles are cared for, the sub centre is surrounded by a group of volunteers that strives to provide a quality service for its community.
In the last financial year, Wagin Sub Centre attended 250 cases and travelled more than 10,000 kilometres.
Over all of WA, volunteers have put in 3,250,000 volunteer hours for 2009-10.
Many people think the Wagin Sub Centre has enough helpers but in the past few months it has had four volunteer officers move away and is waiting to train new people.
If people are interested, they are invited to come to the sub centre on September 16 for a celebratory evening commencing from 6.30pm with food and drinks supplied.
People who want to attended are asked to call Anne Hill on 0458 995 278 for catering purposes.
This is a good opportunity to come along, meet the officers and talk to them about the service and their experiences.
St John Ambulance has more than 3000 volunteers operating throughout the country areas and they all do an outstanding job.
To be singled out for special acknowledgement is a great honour and reflects the truly exceptional service these individuals provide to the Wagin community.
The other finalists for this year's sub centre of the year award were Capel, Cue, Karratha, Pingrup and Ravensthorpe.
For more information on becoming an ambulance volunteer call 1800 069 393 or visit www.stjohnambulance.com.au
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