17 years of service: Celebrating Doreen and Trevor for National Volunteer Week

In celebration of National Volunteer Week, Australian Red Cross is proud to recognise the extraordinary commitment of Doreen and Trevor, who are marking an incredible 17 years of volunteering with Australian Red Cross Emergency Services.

The couple began their volunteer journey after friends shared how life-changing and empowering it was to support people during their most vulnerable moments. Since then, Doreen and Trevor have become a vital part of the Australian Red Cross emergency response volunteer teams —always ready to lend a hand, no matter where or when. “We’ve travelled to Queensland on numerous occasions, assisting after cyclones and floods. We’ve supported our local community during the 2022 floods, spending nearly five months at a recovery centre helping people get back on their feet,” said Doreen. “We’ve even been to Merimbula more than once. We keep coming back because we simply like helping people.”

Over the years, they’ve honed their ability to provide compassionate support in the toughest circumstances. “You get to the point where you can tell if someone's doing it tough. Doreen said. “We learn through training, through Australian Red Cross, how to be empathic and read people. We're not experts at it, but over time we've improved our ability to be able to pick out the ones who need a little bit more time spent with, where we'll go over, sit them down, get them a bottle of water, a coffee or whatever, and just let them talk. And I think that's the best thing that we can do is we can let them talk, we listen, they talk, and we can then at the end of those discussions, we can usually work out exactly who they need to see to make sure that their problems are fixed.”

Trevor added, “our bags are always packed. So when Australian Red Cross say, we would like you guys to go such and such a place. We are there.” Whether it’s a call to help in Queensland, Victoria, or anywhere across the country, Doreen and Trevor answer without hesitation. “So, you're not just helping the bloke around the corner. You're helping people all over Australia,” Trevor said.

This National Volunteer Week, we thank Doreen, Trevor, and the thousands of volunteers like them who make the work of the Australian Red Cross possible. Their compassion, dedication, and selflessness are the heart of our emergency response efforts and an inspiration to us all.

Media contact:
Australian Red Cross Media
media@redcross.org.au or 1800 733 443