Kambalda Volunteer Fire Rescue Service receives support from community through Containers for Change scheme

The Kambalda Volunteer Fire Rescue Service have installed a Containers for Change collection point to raise funds for local junior firefighters to attend the State championships in November.

Captain Darren McCarthy said each year they took 30 juniors away to compete at the fire brigades State championships.

“Taking that may kids away with accommodation, bus hire and everything costs us probably $12,000 to $15,000,” he said.

“We don’t actually earn any money or anything like that, we rely on getting sponsorship and people making donations.”

Mr McCarthy said Pitbull Services had set up the Containers for Change collection point on Wednesday, and by Monday morning they had already filled it to the brim.

“If we can put it outside the station, people sort of realised that it’s for our juniors, it makes it a bit easier for people to be able to access and drop their cans,” he said.

“We have really great support from all our parents, and all our local community groups, you know, they get behind us. We have people pulling us up just to donate money to say, ‘Hey, listen, can we throw some money in just to get the kids away?’.”

Mr McCarthy said the Kambalda juniors had been the biggest group to participate in the competition in the whole State for the past two years, and were State champions in 2021 and runners-up in 2022.