Victoria State Emergency Service, VICSES, last week honoured Wimmera volunteer Nola Smith for her decades of dedication and contribution to the community.

Wimmera operations manager Ryan Leffler presented Ms Smith with a certificate of appreciation for her contributions across decades of service as an SES volunteer, including as unit controller at Edenhope.

Ms Smith, who joined VICSES more than 30 years ago, said she only became a member after being talked into it.

“I drove taxis and Don Kuhne was the controller at Horsham, and he said ‘have you thought of SES?’” she said.

“I said ‘no, not really’, and he said ‘come down – we need a communications officer’.

“I started off as a communications officer, still driving taxis. My pager would go off and he’d say ‘go for it’.”

After joining as a communications officer, Ms Smith eventually held roles including deputy unit controller and finance officer.

While she had lived in Horsham all her life, Ms Smith accepted a position as deputy unit controller in Edenhope, eventually becoming unit controller.

Ms Smith became an SES life member in 2017 and said her time with the service had been rewarding.

She encouraged others to consider joining to make a difference in their communities.

“It’s not all road crashes. There’s a lot of other stuff you can do. You can help people out,” she said.

“I started off doing catering. We catered for the Police and Fire Games golf day. There’s always something to do, and I’ve done it all.

“There’s lots of things you can do – if you don’t want to go out to a crash, you don’t have to.”

Ms Smith said her children had all joined SES when they grew up, with two of her grandchildren now also in the service.

“My youngest grand-daughter sees a rescue truck in Shepparton and goes, ‘grammy’s driving the truck again’,” she said.

“It’s very rewarding and I think it’s giving back to people who helped me over the years. I’ve done a fair bit.”

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