ZEST AWARD WINNERS! Great Community Transport Volunteer News. Autumn 2012 Lawson Penrith me:

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1 Great Community Transport Volunteer News Autumn 2012 Lawson Penrith me: Hi All, Well Autumn is here and looks like we missed out on summer this year where is the year going. This newsletter contains lots of info for all volunteers and don t forget to put the mid year gathering on the 29th June in your diaries, so we can all catch up for a chat....and welcome to all of our new volunteers Jan, John, John & Lyn ZEST AWARD WINNERS! ZEST.ENERGY..STRENGTH.TENACITY Great Community Transport was nominated in the Outstanding Voluntary Group / Organisation category at the 2nd Annual ZEST Awards 2012, and we won! The awards are held to recognise, honour and celebrate the outstanding contribution made by non -government organisations across the Greater Western Sydney region. To raise awareness of and acknowledge the positive impact that community capacity building activities can have within the Greater Western Sydney Region and to encourage community involvement and participation in promoting a positive image for Western Sydney. Board member and volunteer carer Carol Ashley and Helen with the award we received.

2 ..to Joan and Syliva, who were recognised for their volunteer work with GCT at the Blue Mountains City Council Seniors Week Awards. Both ladies are bus carers who work out of the Lawson office. Joan has been a volunteer for 8 years and Sylvia for 7 years, they both work on the shopping buses as well as being regular carers on the special outings buses. This recognition is very well deserved. We recently said goodbye to two of our wonderful volunteers who work out of the Penrith office. Jan has been a carer with us for 8 years and is moving to her new home on the lovely south coast. Leonie was a volunteer in the office and enjoyed her chats with our clients, helping to brighten up their day. We will miss you both and wish you all the very best. Helen made a presentation to Jan and Leonie at a farewell afternoon tea held at the Penrtih office.

3 Volunteer drivers to drive on weekends. If you are available the occassional weekend please or give me a call. As the demand for this type of transport grows, you may be able to help us out. VOLUNTEER REVIEWS..have I caught up with you for our annual chat? I am trying to vary the days that I am at Penrith and I can see volunteers on different days at Lawson to accommodate the availability of all of our volunteers. So send me an or give me a ring and let me know which days suit you. I have spoken to quite a number of you already, and hope to see the rest of you very soon. NEW ARRANGEMENTS FOR THOSE VOLUNTEERS WITH CENTRELINK ARRANGEMENTS It is a requirement that GCT records all hours worked by our volunteers on Mutual Obligation Arrangements. As of the beginning of April it will be the responsibility of ALL volunteers who need to perform hours for Centrelink to complete their timesheets and make sure that they are returned to me for those volunteers at Penrith I have a tray near the fax machine that they can be placed in. If you do not come into the office I will give you a supply of blank forms and you can ask your driver to hand them in at the office for you. In order for us to be able to sign your Centrelink forms we will need to verify your hours with your timesheets, so please remember to get your forms to me each fortnight. TRAINING NEWS All of our training sessions have been well attended this year and our most recent Work, Health, Safety Training with Workcover gave us all more information on the new WHS laws. Next training on Friday 18th May at 9.30am at the Penrith office is Assisting Techniques. This training is a must for drivers and carers to learn how to assist our clients in a manner that is safe for the clients and most importantly yourselves. If you are interested in attending please or call me at the Lawson office. NEW CARER CAR DELIVERED We have taken delivery of the new carer car and will shortly begin training the Penrith Volunteer Driver Team members who will be driving it. It will certainly stand out when out and about.

4 JIMMY SMALL ARRIVES AT LAWSON Just before Easter our new Tarago was delivered. This car was donated to Great Community Transport by The Great Walk Foundation in memory of a very valuable member of their team Jimmy Small. This vehicle will give us another resource to transport clients to their medical appointments. Welcome to the GCT fleet Jimmy Small Like us on Facebook Connect with us and each other on Facebook by liking us at greatcommunitytransport. We d love to hear from you on our Facebook page. Stay tuned for FREE training opportunities. PLEASE NOTE!! It has been bought to our attention that some volunteers are wearing very strongly scented perfume, deodorant and aftershave. As some of our clients, staff and volunteers have allergic reactions it would be appreciated if you could use items with little or no perfume when working for GCT. VOLLIE CHAT This is a new section I have added to the newsletter and I need your input! Have you been somewhere interesting on holiday, found a great new restaurant or café or maybe just been on a nice drive somewhere that you d like to share with others, carers on the special outing buses how about an article on some of the places you ve been with the clients? Just drop me an or write me out a short article and leave at the office for me, photos would be great too if you don t have please still include your photos and I will scan and return them. Send me your articles at any time and I will include them in the next newsletter. Hope to get lots of interesting articles from you soon. This month we have an article from Lorraine McDonald who is a carer at Penrith about her overseas jaunt unfortunately, she doesn t have her photos back yet and Denis Smith from the Lawson office has been on his regular walking holiday in the high country lots of great photos.

5 From Lorraine.. Never been on a holiday overseas before when 2 of my friends were going to England to see the dog show (Crufs) so they asked me if I would be interested in going too, I thought about it & said yes!! But seeing how as we were going so far away we decided to go for 3 weeks, other countries included, Vienna, Paris, Venice & Rome. The highlight of my holiday was going to the Moulin Rouge in Paris!! fantastic & elegant. It was very nice to go overseas BUT there is no place like HOME. It took me 4 days to get over my jet lag then it was back to what I love doing - my 3 days volunteering for Great Community Transport & the best group of girls & men to work with, I missed everyone of them while I was away. Denis.and his wife Lyn are keen bush walkers who holiday each year with like minded people exploring the high country around the snowy mountains. Denis and Lyn have sent us some great photos of their recent trip, and look at how fantastic the weather was! The Smith s at Smith s pass Near the source of the Denis checking his Snowy River compass at Mt Stillwell trig near Charlotte Pass. Guthega Creek Seaman s Hut near Mt Kosciusko Hope to see you soon. Sharon