Just when I thought that I knew all of the many organisations that are involved with the community, I had a call from the President of a group which she said is the LAC. And obviously, my response was to ask what those letters stood for. Well, for those of you who don’t know, LAC stands for Local Ambulance Community and President Rae Guyder was calling to tell me that people from that committee would be running a public awareness stand in the Bongaree shopping centre as part of Ambulance Week.
She mentioned that in the past the committee has been a part of open days at the Queensland Ambulance Stations which are regarded as a way to engage with the community during Ambulance Week but they decided to do something a little different this year. Rae explained that whilst the LAC is affiliated with the QAS, they are their own entity and have their own finances.
‘The community is very good to us,’ Rae told me. The awareness stand was manned at the centre on both the Thursday and Saturday of Ambulance week and LAC volunteers were kept busy explaining about what they do and how they provide support to QAS which includes fundraising to purchase extra equipment for paramedics and also raising awareness through community engagement.
There was a large range of informative brochures available which provided the public with information about CPR and other courses as well as an insight into what the QAS does. Our LAC fills a diverse role within the community and this includes providing CPR courses and teaching first aid to the children, mainly through visits to Guide and Scout meetings.
Rae remarked that teaching people about what they should do while waiting for paramedics is essential. ‘There have been many instances when people’s lives have been saved because someone had that knowledge,’ said Rae. Joining the volunteers on the stand was Bribie Island Station Acting OIC Jarred Thorne who praised the work done by the ten volunteers of the Local Ambulance Committee.
You can find out more about The Local Ambulance Committee by visiting https://www.ambulance.qld.gov.au/volunteers.html