Wollondilly Shire has dealt with bushfires and now floods in recent years. Heartbreaking times like these can bring out the best in people when they come together for their communities. This is certainly the case in Silverdale.
Despite the heavy rains and flooding, 40 to 50 local people of all ages game together at Silverdale Rural Fire Brigade’s station to assist in filling and preparing sandbags for Wollondilly Shire last month.
The inspirational volunteers from across the area assisted in shovelling sand to fill bags, loading them onto trucks and cars and stacking them in bulk piles for the community to access if needed.
“One message was posted to Facebook requesting assistance and the community support we received was outstanding! We were amazed at how many people came to help, even teenagers rode to the station on their push bikes to give us a hand” explained Catherine Lambeth of Silverdale Rural Fire Brigade.
Many bags were filled by the volunteers, including 1,000 in one day.
“We would like to thank the community for their assistance, continuous offers of help at the station and the messages we received through our Facebook page! A big thankyou also goes to the amazing people who cooked and delivered homemade cakes to the station for sandbagging volunteers – as well as our own volunteer members” Catherine said.
“On top of this, thank you to NSW SES Wollondilly Unit for organising the delivery of sand and sandbags, Silverdale Sand and Soil for supplying multiple deliveries of sand (an approximate total of 50 tonnes), and Pietro’s Italian Restaurant in Warragamba for suppling our volunteers with delicious pizza after the sandbagging” she continued.
At this present stage, no additional help is required for sandbagging for April. They will watch the weather conditions and notify the community when this changes.
“Whether its fire, flood, famine, or anything else – time and time again Wollondilly residents have proven that when the call goes out for help you can guarantee that call will be answered from young and old. The community will band together and work shoulder to shoulder; rain, hail or shine to achieve a common goal to help one another in a time of need” Catherine ended.