This week is National Volunteer Week, and Mt Isa SES’s Alison Martens is one of the best.

Ms Martens has lived in Mt Isa for 18 years and began volunteering with the local SES about a year ago.

“I was a member (of the SES) in Victoria and the Northern Territory back in the late 80s and early 90s,” she said. 

“I was working as a journalist and I went to do a story on the SES and I thought it looked really interesting, so I joined up.”

For her day job Ms Martens works as the manager of a local disability organisation, and said volunteering gives her the chance to broaden her skill set. 

She said she volunteers simply because she loves it.  

“I enjoy the people I meet, particularly with SES I do different skills, I’m a manager and so this gets me out doing really practical stuff,” she said.

“I think it’s good to give something back to the community you in as well.”

The local SES meet every Wednesday at 6pm, and Ms Martens said she decided to join back up after her kids had grown a bit older. 

“It’s a good organisation in that you only have to do what your personal limitations and preferences make you do,” she said.

“You don’t have to do everything if you’re not comfortable, like for example there’s no way I’m getting on a roof but I’m happy at the bottom holding the ladder while other people are running around on the roof.”

Fire and Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford said with more than 42,000 volunteers in the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, including Rural Fire Service and SES, it was great to have a chance to celebrate them during National Volunteer Week. 

Mr Crawford said the theme for this year’s week is ‘Give a little. Change a lot’.

“The eagerness and enthusiasm of our volunteers is inspiring, and Queenslanders can take comfort from the passion they have for helping ease their pain,” Mr Crawford said.

“My deep respect for volunteers began at a young age with the example set by my father, a member of the Victorian Country Fire Authority, and eventuated with my own enrolment in the local brigade.

“I spent two decades with the Victorian CFA while also working full time as a paramedic before I moved to far north Queensland.

“Queensland is a unique state, faced with environmental and climate challenges that can see a cyclone in the north one day and bushfires in the south the next.”