Craig Ashworth is someone who fully embodies the sentiment of ‘giving back to the community’ – an active volunteer with plans to do still more in the future.
Craig has been volunteering his time with Royal Life Saving for the past six years, chiefly providing valuable support to our pool lifesaving division. He provides his services as a coach within the sport, as well as taking on the role of Team Manager for our State Team and travelling interstate each year for the Australian Pool Life Saving Championships, where he is also an accredited official. When he’s not busy helping our lifesaving athletes, Craig also helps out at our annual Pool Lifeguard Challenge in a variety of roles including equipment setter and actor!
“When we moved to Perth I joined the Surf Life Saving movement, and through the Pool Lifesaving activities they do in the off-season I found it to be a natural progression with the kids to become involved in Royal Life Saving which has a similar program. I previously volunteered heavily with the kids' sports/schools as well as patrolling, officiating and coaching with Surf Lifesaving. I mentor past members as well who have left the organisation but still reach out for advice, these are mainly young people in their early 20s who I coached previously.
“I've been living in Perth for 11 years with my amazing wife and awesome girls, I moved down here after 20 years in Kambalda out in the Goldfields. The main reason we moved was to ensure that the kids had access to a whole range of activities if they chose to do them. I used to volunteer in Kambalda with the local Mines Rescue team, fire brigade and then coached/umpired a whole raft of Junior Sports and was the Captain of the Golf Club for five years.
“Up until 12 months ago I worked in the corporate office for an international energy company which allowed me to volunteer most weekends. I now work offshore (450km from Broome) on their production facilities as an Improvement Coordinator on roster which has unfortunately seen me unavailable each week to volunteer. Once the kids are fully mobile and less dependent, I’ll likely take up additional volunteering work in the community with the Men's Shed program or driving elderly citizens for the council and so forth.
“Volunteering provides me with satisfaction."
“I like the fact that volunteering forces you to be around other people, it's also nice to be able to pass on knowledge and ensure that everyone who is participating is looked after and provided the same care as others. It makes you value what's around you, I've learnt this from my Nanna and my Mum who both volunteered heavily. My Nanna was still doing musicals when she was in her 70s for the "old people" as she referred to them, most of whom were recent retirees younger than her!
“I hope that my volunteering benefits those involved, I know that people feel comfortable when you're on patrol at the beach and looking out for them. My family are all active volunteers in different capacities so as a household we give back where we can and could only hope that when the time comes that we might need some assistance people will step up and help. My girls would rather volunteer somewhere than do chores at home!"
As a not-for-profit organisation, Royal Life Saving relies on the support of our volunteers to deliver a number of programs and provide water safety education within the community. “Royal Life Saving is a great organisation that adds so much value to the safety and education of people around water, volunteering with them is very easy and you are always thanked and looked after.”
“I'd encourage everyone to give up some time as a volunteer as there are so many pathways where you can help and make other people’s lives and experiences enjoyable.”
You can learn more about volunteering with Royal Life Saving at the link below:
