Greetings to all St John friends, Happy New Year for 2010.

It has been a very eventful break for us in Katherine, with many people going on holidays and the general running around catching up with family and friends. Katherine division has had few duties over the Christmas break, but is in the swing of things again now that the hype of the festive season is over.

I had a casual job over Christmas as a fill in at the reception of St John in Katherine for a few weeks……. Boy!! Don’t ever let me tell you nothing exciting ever happens in any office. There I was minding my own business, when I heard something crash and break. St John share the building with Health Care services and I found that a young wallaby had jumped through their front glass door.

Steve and Benny were on crew that day with Matt, who are all volunteers as well. Thanks to quick thinking and a few clever tactics they cornered the wallaby and administered First Aid. They put him on a stretcher and took him to the closest vet, who sutured up his laceration to the right side of his face and released him back into the wild the next day, after bouncing back to a full recovery in such a short time.

As I will be in there again for a few more weeks, I eagerly await what exciting things will happen then.

The golden unwritten rule I have found is that if you get your mug in the paper you have to provide morning tea. If you are a volunteer it is a packet of Tim Tams at the next meeting. I am wondering how many other divisions also go by this rule as payback. I would have thought that the person appearing in the paper would be given this as a reward for the publicity stunt or simply because they are a celebrity, either way a reward of Tim Tams is a fair price to pay.

I now have to provide this payback for getting myself along with a few other members in the local paper for the last duty we were at promoting a “Come and try sports day” in Katherine for young people. Next time I see a camera and I know it is pointing at me I will hide, so no more Tim Tams.

With a half year planned already it is looking to be lots of fun for Katherine Division. 

Till next time friends, keep smiling.

Article by Tanea Rudder 
Katherine Division