Thank you for volunteering your time to support veterans and their families

Thank you for volunteering your time to support veterans and their families

Dear Members

This National Volunteer Week, I thank you for your unwavering dedication to supporting veterans and their families in your community.

Every Service, Affiliate, and Auxiliary member of RSL NSW is a volunteer, freely giving your time and expertise to support veterans and their families by connecting them to their local community through camaraderie, mateship, recreation, and commemorating service.

In keeping with this year’s National Volunteer Week theme ‘The change makers’ , I thank you for the work that you’re doing at a grass-roots level to ensure that every veteran knows what the RSL is and the incredible work our volunteers do. It is not going unnoticed; for the first time in 40 years our membership is increasing and the average age of members is decreasing.

Whether it is organising local commemorations, advocating for another veteran, connecting someone with support from RSL LifeCare Veteran Services and Open Arms, taking on Office Bearer roles in your sub-Branch, fundraising for those in need, or visiting a mate who is homebound, I know there are scores of unsung heroes throughout our membership.

Your volunteering is bringing people together, building communities, and creating a better society where the heroic deeds of the fallen are remembered and those bearing the scars (inside or out) from their service, and their families, are supported.

With the Defence Strategic Review fresh in our minds, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide is well underway, and, considering the ongoing instability around the globe, I think it’s fair to say we are at an inflection point in the life of Australia’s Defence and veteran community. Please be encouraged that your efforts are making a difference as we work together to forge the future of the League in NSW. Thank you for all that you do.

Yours faithfully,

Ray James OAM

RSL NSW President