Each year for the last five years there is a group of about 130 hard yakka Swansea Belmont club members who don their bright green t-shirts to bring the State Championships to life. They’re at the beach well before dawn and are picking up the last piece of rubbish and pulling down the final roller door after the last competitor has driven back over the Belmont bridge.
They aren’t unlike stagehands at a performance, but with their infectious energy and hi-vis, they can be seen but often aren’t because the work they do makes the event so seamless. But they’re the smiling, no-problem-too-big, very capable team that do everything from cleaning the toilets to fencing, managing and moving equipment on and off the beach, the carparks, they’re vacuuming and they’re turning the snags.
There isn’t one person that represents this team. There are over 130 on the ground but like all surf lifesavers, they are supported by their families the wider community. That’s why they love it.
Their work starts months before the State Championships infrastructure rolls into the Lake Macquarie region and despite the long hours in the hot sun or trudging around in gumboots in torrential rain they wouldn’t let the club down, their community, their family.
The Swansea Belmont SLSC State Champs Workforce have been the beating heart of our event and this week on National Volunteer Week we would like to recognise the contribution they have made for the last five years. Thank you to every single member of the Swansea Belmont Workforce!
