21/07/2026
The heart of a volunteer
The phone doesn't care that it's 02h00, that it's blowing 40 knots, or that tomorrow is a work day. Neither does the volunteer. That is the heart of it: they show up when they don't have to. Nobody pays them, and nobody would blame them for staying in bed. Yet they go. That gap between "could stay home" and "went anyway" is where the whole thing lives.
Underneath that, a few threads weave together. One is a sense of belonging to something larger than yourself: a crew, a station, a community that would do the same for you. Another is the quiet conviction that skill carries obligation. If you can help, and you have trained to help, then standing by is not an option your conscience will allow. And there is identity. Over time, volunteering stops being something you do and becomes part of who you are.
But the true heart of it is not the dramatic rescue. It is the unglamorous middle: the training nights, the maintenance days, the fundraising, the callout that turns out to be nothing. Anyone can be moved to help in a crisis. A volunteer keeps helping when there is no crisis, no audience and no thanks, because the readiness itself is the gift.
And that gift carries a cost. Every volunteer sacrifices something of their work and family life: the birthday party left halfway through, the family dinner interrupted, the leave spent on training courses. The volunteer chooses this willingly, but their families and employers inherit a commitment they never signed up for, and they pay part of the price every time the phone rings. That is why balance matters. It is not a soft consideration; it is what keeps good people in the service for the long haul. The volunteers who last are the ones honest enough to manage that tension, and the crews that last are the ones who make it acceptable to say "not this one, I need to be home tonight" without it being read as weakness.
The sacrifice is shared, even when the choice is not. Recognising that openly, and thanking the families who stand behind every crew member, is one of the kindest things we can do for our people.
