Our Newest Recruit has arrived

Our latest recruit has just arrived, although it may be sometime before Mum and Dad let her loose on a hose. Congratulations to Donna and Ken on the birth of Kate Maree born Wednesday evening. Mum and Bub are doing well - we haven't heard about Dad. Congratulations guys from all the brigade members.
Captn Dave

65 Roses Day - Cystic Fibrosis

As members of our brigade would know we try to support Cystic Fibrosis, Australia in any small way we can. Next week there is an awareness day, to be precise it will be Friday 28th May. Called 65 Roses Day it is designed to raise awareness of and raise funds for research into Cystic Fibrosis. I would urge any volunteers or follows of our blog out there who have a couple dollars to spare to buy a wrist band, pen or badge to assist this great cause. The merchandise is on sale at most larger stores that I know of and probably lots of other places. More information about 65 Roses day is available at the Cystic Fibrosis web site http://www.cysticfibrosis.org.au/65rosesday/
More information about Cystic Fibrosis can be found at the Cystic Fibrosis - Australia web site http://www.cysticfibrosis.org.au

Interesting Links

The brigade has had a mention in a couple of stories and I also came across an article I thought may interest a few people.
The first link is to the story on our training day at the NDTG.
http://www.cfaconnect.net.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1966&I
The second link is to a story on the Murtoa Brigade who are doing some great things and seem to have a philosophy similar to ours.
http://www.cfaconnect.net.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1615&Itemid=42

Patto

Group Training Day NDTG

Sunday 1st May and its off to the NDTG for the Elmore Group training day. We have invited Raywood to join us for the day given in the new group structure we may be in the same Group. Elmore, Kamarooka, Raywood and Goornong made up the contingent of 5 trucks and about 25 personal plus the 6 volunteer instructors for a pretty full day. There was also a group from Murrabit doing off road training on the new course. Nice new truck guys. The activities for the day were Gas fire (domestic) a pole fire and remote structure fire. Most of the crews were a mix of new members or crew leaders and some more experienced volunteers. CFA media also came a long and I believe a story and photos of the day will be on CFA connect pretty soon. (Thanks Leith)

It was great to see many of the volunteers step up and take on roles and mentored in areas outside their comfort zones. Many had a dip at IC and Crew leader roles. The way they absorbed the information, listened and reacted to the mentors and instructors can only be a plus for brigades as fossils like my self hand over the reigns.

The day culminated in an exercise which the crews had not been told about and was presented as a "Gas bullet" fire. In fact when the crews responded they had a gas bullet fire with casualties.As the crews bought the gas fire under control another fire erupted in the adjacent service station, also with casualties.

The responsee by crew, crew leaders and IC was excellent under pressure. The comments after the exercise indicated the worth of providing this type of training. Thanks to all who participated and making the day worth while. Thanks to Jason (Elmore Group) for his organisation of the day and also to the Pad Instructors.