Last Saturday night many of us were lucky to be at the Lantern Parade and it was great to have it back after having to cancel last year due to the outbreak of Covid19, not that it has gone away by any stretch of the imagination.

This year working within the rules of NSW Health and finding a controlled location at the show grounds it seemed to go off without a hitch other than some people not being able to get in because it was a sell-out.

Well done to the LightNup team.

Also well done to all those who volunteered their time and hard work to make sure the event was a success.

There were some regular faces on the gates during the day that you see doing the same at so many different events in our area, they are the perennial volunteers in our community and God bless them for doing so.

We are so lucky to have so many people, groups and organisations that do so much for our community.

I became a member of the Rotary Club of Lismore Networking earlier this year and at our dinner this week overheard a conversation of a couple of members who said that they had volunteered on Saturday. Not through Rotary but just because they wanted to.

Groups like Rotary, Lions, Lord's Taverners just turn up and help where they see a need and quite often it is to support another charity. Just look at the work that the Lord's Taverners do to help everyone from Our Kids to Jodie’s Inspiration or the Cancer Council, who I might add are full of volunteers themselves.

Let’s not forget the people who line up year after year for our sporting organisation as members of committees or coaching staff, amazing.

Then we have the many groups who help the hungry and the homeless often donating their own money let alone their precious time.

There are volunteers that visit the elderly and those in nursing homes or at the other end of the scale with kids in schools and preschools.

It doesn’t matter whether it is helping at a major event or charitable fundraiser or may be cooking a meal for those staying at Our House as they receive medical treatment at the hospital or for that matter helping the Hospital Auxiliary. Everyone deserves a major round of applause.

In this day and age where most of us are time-poor, it is the giving of time that means the most to those that the volunteers in our community help.

So many of us just turn up to wherever we are going, and things are just running smoothly, and we think so little of it but in most cases, things just do not happen in our community without someone going out of their way to help.

As I said, at our Rotary meeting the other night there are those of us who simply put up our hands to help without even thinking, we just do it because we can. Luckily in Lismore, we seem to have an abundance of them.

So, thank you to all of those people who volunteer in our community no matter what you do it is appreciated, and it is noticed.