Page 3177 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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Volunteering activities occur in a wide range of areas. You can volunteer as a guide at Old Parliament House, be a Lifeline phone counsellor or assist newly arrived Canberrans through refugee support programs. You can volunteer to coach a junior sporting team or help with reading programs at your child’s school. There is no limit to the kind of volunteering projects which are available.
Last year, during the centenary year, Volunteering ACT ran a 100 volunteering stories campaign, which called on volunteers and organisations to share their volunteer stories. I would like to share one of them with you today. It is a story from Elizabeth Tracey, a volunteer at Ronald McDonald House, where I also volunteer. Ms Tracey said:
I have volunteered in Canberra across several organisations for over 26 years and have found it to be extremely rewarding. My time, however, with Ronald McDonald House has actually been life changing. Having spent long periods of time staying in hospital based accommodation with an ill family member and experiencing the stress and trauma that goes along with having them airlifted interstate in an emergency, I will forever be grateful to the people I met along the way, complete strangers who assisted and supported me in those situations. Coming up to the first year anniversary for RMH in Canberra and welcoming the 200th family to the House, it continues to be an absolute privilege to help and support the families of critically ill children, which RMH do 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and to be able to give something back along the way. “Volunteers are the Heart of the House”—I couldn’t be more proud than to say that I am one of them.
In addition to Ronald McDonald House Canberra, I personally have had interaction over the past few weeks with a wide range of other organisations that rely heavily on volunteers, and these read like a cross-section of our community: Tuggeranong Hawks Football Club, Tuggeranong United Football, Conservation Council, Lake Tuggeranong Carers, Diversity ACT, ACT Shelter, ATODA, Public Health Association of Australia, Marymead, Barnardos, Fadden P&C at the Fadden Primary School fair, the Tharwa Preschool for the Tharwa fair, Leukaemia Foundation for Lifecycle, Communities@Work, Tuggeranong Community Council, my local community fire unit, and many more. These are organisations that rely heavily on volunteers that are doing great work in our community day in and day out.
The stories from Volunteering ACT’s project last year gave just a tiny glimpse of volunteers in our community—the passion they have and the time they give over countless years. There is also evidence that volunteering can boost happiness, decrease depression and help you live longer. As Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we do, but we make a life from what we give.”
I join with Ms Porter in acknowledging the valuable role played by over one-third of ACT residents who volunteer, and I look forward to the review and updating of the ACT volunteering statement. We are pleased to support this motion today.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo—Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Corrective Services, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for Sport and Recreation) (6.14): I thank Ms Porter for bringing
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