My first blog as an Extreme Weather Hero

Hi my name is Ben and I like long walks along the beach, watching DVDs, holding hands... Oops, wrong blog...  ;-p

 

Hi there groovy climate changers,
 
This is my inaugural blog as an Extreme Weather Hero. How exciting!!!
 
I'd like to make this first entry about the briefing weekend we all had at the Mara and Stu eco-hacienda up in the Gold Coast hinterland and a little bit about who I am.

 

In fact it was so eco-friendly Mara discovered a whole range of edible plants not more then five metres from her veranda she thought were weeds.
 

 
We spent most of the weekend learning about the effects of climate change and extreme weather, socialising, being IT edumacated (thanks to Fran the IT superhero ;-p) and being surprised how the X, Y and Z generations are really hooked into technology. Geez, and I thought I was bad reading my SMS' first thing in the morning and spending way too much time on Facebook.

 

In short the role of the Extreme Weather Heroes is to increase awareness of climate change that can lead to more extreme weather events. Just look at what's happening at the moment in Far North Qld and Fiji as examples. Whether or not you believe these events are caused by climate change is up to you but I think we all agree extreme weather is not a good thing. 
 
The Extreme Weather Heroes are a bunch of volunteers from various agencies who deal with emergencies and whose aim is not only raise awareness of climate change and extreme weather, but also promote volunteering within the wider community especially with the younger generations. That's right… that means you kiddies out there, put down your PS3 controllers and Wii nunchucks for a little while and be part of the wider community, both online and physically. 
 
So far the heroes are based in Sydney (moi), Melbourne (Ruby), Canberra (Jake), Brisbane (Ayla) and the Solomon’s (Katie). 
 
Now a little about me.
 
I volunteer with Red Cross and am a Deputy Team Leader with one of the Voluntary Aid Service teams, basically first aid volunteering. We cover things such as sporting events like footy, soccer etc., community events like band comps and fetes, corporate games, and even random things like Christmas parties. Seeing people absolutely blotto when you’re sober in that environment is a very interesting experience indeed. I've been doing this for 6 years or so.
 
I'm also a Deputy Team Leader with one of the Emergency Services Personal Support (PS) Teams. PS is active in emergencies such as floods, storms, meeting evacuees, basically any event where a large number of people are displaced. We provide help in evacuation and recovery centres, man the telephones, do doorknocks and generally supply aid to people - Want a tea or a coffee? There are quite a few of these teams in Sydney and thankfully not called into service too often.

If that isn't enough I'm also one of the Save-A-Mate (SAM) crew. SAM provides drug awareness information to youths, primarily at music festivals (V Festival, Good Vibrations just to name a couple) - gotta love the free entry too :-))). If you're ever at one of the big events come and say hi. Anyone whose name is Sam gets a prize...

 

 

Over the next year or so I'll be blogging about my experiences as a volunteer plus tell you about climate change and extreme weather events.
 
That's probably enough from me for the mo...
 
If you haven't already done so please have a look at my Facebook profile for more piccies and other random things. Also have a gander around this website www.greencrossaustralia.org for information on a great cause.
 
If you have any questions/comments/suggestions/queries/random thoughts you can make them below too.
 
Until next time... Keep looking out for clouds, although probably not when you’re driving...

 

 

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