This week is National Volunteers Week and we will be highlighting our unbelievably generous volunteers.

Since our early beginnings, volunteers have been integral to our operations and in 2018, they remain an important part of who we are and what we do.

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There are more than 1,000 people throughout Northern NSW who wear a red shirt and are part of 37 Volunteer Support Groups, who generously give their time to raise awareness and funds that help to ensure nobody will ever have to pay to be assisted by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

Volunteers stand alongside our partners in NSW Ambulance and NSW Health, our supporters in the corporate sector and the community, to help us provide the best possible aeromedical search and rescue service in Australia.

Our volunteers make an immense contribution to the service every day.

You might have noticed them in your community proudly wearing red shirts at local events, shopping centres, op shops, cooking up a storm at sporting grounds or hardware stores, or you might have added a few coins to the tin they were shaking.

While our trained engineers, pilots, aircrew officers and medical teams from NSW Ambulance and NSW Health deliver people to emergency and provide medical care, the work of our volunteers make it all possible.

This week is all about celebrating the work of volunteers throughout Australia, so please if you see a volunteer in your community say ‘THANK YOU’.

Those two small words really do go a long way in ensuring that volunteers feel valued.

Since 1975 our generous volunteers have been fundamental in helping to ensure the Westpac Rescue Helicopter continues to fly as a free service for those in need.

On behalf of our staff, the board and regional advisory committees, I would like to say thank you to every person who has or continues to volunteer for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service.