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Bogan Shire Mayor Ray Donald used his address at Tuesday’s Anzac Day commemorations to remind people volunteer and give back to society as the Anzacs did over 100 years ago.
Cr Donald said the Anzacs who gave their lives in the Gallipoli and following campaigns were the ultimate volunteers sacrificing their lives.
“It takes a lot of courage, mate ship and the volunteer ethic to the extreme, to follow your mate over a trench into machine gun fire, running over open ground through barbed wire into almost certain death,” he said to the crowd of over 100 who gathered in the drizzling rain.
“Let’s ask ourselves what kind of nation the 60,000 volunteers who did not come home from the First World War would have wanted what sort of community they would have wanted.
“They surely would have wanted that same volunteer ethic to remain a major part of Australian Society that they didn’t come home to.”
Cr Donald said being a volunteer and helping people has enormous rewards in peace time, differing to war time, when the Anzacs signed up.
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”There is no glory in war, however it does bring out the best in some human qualities, like mate ship, bravery, determination, resilience, courage and loyalty,” he said.
“These qualities transferred to peace time can be an enormous benefit to a community like ours.”
Volunteer and community groups folding is a concern of the long time mayor and spoke directly to the young people of the town about local services closing down.
“In our own town a lot of organisations rely on volunteers, through the eyes on our war memorial who paid the supreme sacrifice, they see some of these services closing down, and others hanging on with volunteers very few in numbers,” Cr Donald said.
“Lets roll up our sleeves and fill the gaps in our town and organisations, where volunteers are needed.
“Its a challenge, particularly for our young people to take up, those of you are about the same age as those chaps who stormed the shores of Gallipoli 100 years ago.”