LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
GOLDEN Beach Surf Life Saving Club is no longer in recess.
While in recess we have been working quietly behind the scenes to put ourselves in a better position to become an active club again, despite unreasonable opposition from specific political bureaucracy.
We now have several new members with considerable experience in this area who are able to give us the positive strength that we needed to move forward.
We have continued to fundraise to maintain our current facility, to allow us to update our equipment as required and to enable us to buy a much newer rescue boat.
All of this costs a lot of money, and has been made possible with the help of supporters.
We have recently been able to provide students from Gippsland Grammar the opportunity to obtain their bronze medallion awards at a training camp at Wonthaggi Surf Life Saving Club.
The 10 students and two teachers were all assessed as competent. They are still required to put in 10 hours on patrol to complete their certificates, and we will work with them to ensure that they can attend the venue most suited to them and their families.
These young life savers gain life skills, learn how to work in a team and learn valuable first aid and communication skills.
We still need to work towards our affiliation with Life Saving Victoria, so we will not be in a position to put a patrol on the beach this summer.
Gaining this affiliation is extremely complex and unfortunately takes time and time has run out for this year.
We have 17 patrol members either already qualified or working towards their qualifications now.
Providing we can retain our new recruits, we will have a better start next year, and this extra time will give us the opportunity to be in a much better financial position
We are currently reviewing our agreement with the Golden-Paradise Beach Men’s shed, and if that is successful there will be little change to our present arrangement.
We are still looking for new members for a variety of jobs (you do not necessarily need to swim). In particular we need a treasurer.
Those able to help in any way can phone president Tony Seals on 0403 729 239 or secretary Sue Parratt on 0408 307 077.
