After a hiatus of several years, the members of the Cowra Branch of the Red Cross have hosted their Annual Zone Conference.
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The other two members in the zone (Country Zone 18) Morongla and Grenfell also attended the Conference.
The Conference also hosted special guest Megan Norton, a Senior Administration Officer for the Greater Western Region, and June Hutchison, a member of the NSW Divisional Advisory Board.
Zone Representative Sue Sharp said it was the first zone conference they have been able to host since around 2015 as they had no Zone Representatives at the time.
Mrs Sharp said she came into the membership branch side of Red Cross in late 2016, though she was involved in the emergency services side of what they do before.
Since then, Mrs Sharp said she was pulled into a lot of Zoom conferences over the COVID-19 period and that was when she became the zone representative.
Mrs Sharp said the Zone Conference was a very worthwhile experience and all the guests enjoyed the day.
Among the topics under discussion was the branch reports, along with information sessions on the Red Cross' Readiness Program and Pillowcase Program.
Along with this there was a talk by June Hutchison who spoke about the NSW Divisional Advisory Board and what they do.
The Readiness Program was developed around Nowra and originally developed for those who are considered and vulnerable and typically live on their own.
The program involves putting together an emergency preparedness kit which allows for people to put documentation about what medications they need and other important documents such as legal documents together, ready in case people need to evacuate due to an emergency.
The Pillowcase Program came out of the USA when the Red Cross were seeing university students evacuating from hurricanes with most of their things in pillowcases.
Mrs Sharp said they take this program into local schools for stage two students which is aimed at helping them to look at wants and needs and get them to do some mindfulness activities.
Mrs Sharp said they give the students pillowcases that they can decorate and talk about what they would need to take if in an emergency situation.
The last couple of years have impacted Red Cross; ability to go into schools to do this program and other programs, Mrs Sharp said, with most of their work going into phone outreach.
Mrs Sharp said at the start of the pandemic she was doing up to 20 phone calls a week to support those in hotel quarantine and from that Red Cross pivoted to support those impacted by the 2019 bushfires.
Mrs Sharp said that the bushfire appeal is still active and not complete as there are still people coming forward to ask for help,
Moving forward over the next few years, Mrs Sharp said they are looking at ways they can support the community.
In Cowra at least, Mrs Sharp said they have turned their focus more towards working with other agencies like Meals on Wheels and community outreach.
As part of this they run a weekly social support group for women who have lost their partners after moving in to town.
The Morongla branch of the Red Cross are set to host their Flower Show on the last weekend of October - the first since 2019.
The Grenfell branch are set to also provide catering for their Open Gardens.
"Gradually we're moving back into some of the things we were doing but we're also looking at, as a zone, ways that we can reach out.
"Not so much focussed on fundraising but more on the humanitarian work of Red Cross," Mrs Sharp said.
The Zone Conference also had a small cake to celebrate the 108th birthday of Red Cross, which turns that old on August 14.
Mrs Sharp said the Cowra Branch of Red Cross was also celebrating their 108th birthday.
The Cowra Branch meets the second Monday of every month.
The Morongla Branch meets the first Wednesday of every month
The Grenfell Branch usually meets on the fourth Friday of the month.