Thursday March the 25th is a day that won’t quickly be forgotten by the COMPASS crew.
Most of you will be familiar with the terrible floods that hit much of the Mid North Coast during a week of rainfall and mayhem rarely seen. Thankfully all in the office except Warrick escaped unscathed (he and Lisa have pulled through the worst of it and will be ok), however that didn’t stop the feeling that we should be doing something to help.
So when the rain stopped we made the decision to close the office for the day and head out into the community to see what we could do. Through social media (it does have some benefit!) we found the “mud army” and they told us to head down to the Riverside Residential Caravan Park as they had been badly impacted.
I’m not sure any of us were ready for what we came across, the place had been virtually wiped out with water through just about every residence, including some that had built up a level. Those we came across were in a state of shock and the realization that their residences had to be gutted was overwhelming. Many had water go through their property virtually up to the ceiling.
I can’t be more proud of the way our girls all got stuck into the job at hand, the conditions were terrible and it would have been very easy to shirk the task and hide in the background, but that certainly wasn’t the case. I think the highlight of the day for many was seeing yours truly dry retching over the contents of a freezer that had seen better days.
By the end of a long, hot, dirty, depressing day, we were all physically and emotionally drained. However we also all felt a great sense of achievement knowing we had done our little bit to help our local community. We also all had a strong resolve to do more over the coming weeks and months ahead, to continue to help out as this nightmare won’t go away for a lot of people for a long time.
If I could leave you with one message it would be to please find a way in your heart to help out your local community where you can. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start, but I would just encourage you to take one step towards helping out. Whether that is through the donation of goods, time, money or just a shoulder for someone to lean on, every little bit helps and you can make a difference. The reward is well and truly worthwhile.
We will continue to find ways where we can help, from donating time, money, services, goods, etc and would encourage you to do likewise.
Thank you
Robert