The community is encouraged to don their best tangerine shades on May 23 for Wear Orange Wednesday, an opportunity to show appreciation for the State Emergency Service and its volunteers.
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About 50 people volunteer with the Bendigo SES unit, one of three – alongside Marong and Heathcote – in the City of Greater Bendigo area.
The North West region has 670 volunteers and responded to 3113 emergencies last year.
Across the state, the SES responded to 31,000 requests for assistance last year, spending 302,623 operational hours helping the community.
Ninety-five per cent of SES members in Victoria are volunteers.
“Wear Orange Wednesday is a well-deserved day of recognition for all our volunteers,” Bendigo SES member Bec Maskell said.
Ms Maskell said volunteers were on-call 24/7, doing everything from removing fallen tree to carrying out road rescues.
“Whether it’s a weekday, a weekend, evening, Christmas, Easter – the pager goes, we go,” she said.
Ms Maskell encouraged people to wear orange or dress up their shop windows to show their support.
The Bendigo Conservatory Gardens will be lit up in orange from May 21 to May 25.
Wear Orange Wednesday is held as part of National Volunteer Week.