 I think National Volunteer Week is an awesome week to be able to celebrate what we do and celebrate the role that we get to play in our local community. I wish that I could have joined CFA years before I did. I wish that I knew about it years before I did because it's been the best decision that I made. Being able to give back to the community and get to know the people that are in our community as well has been such a good decision for me. And if you're considering being a volunteer then I strongly urge that you do it because you won't regret it. My name is Georgie MacDonald. I'm 27 years old. I have been a volunteer with the CFA for six years and I'm at the Jovana Fire Brigade as the third lieutenant. I chose to become a volunteer at a point in my life where I wasn't studying. I was working casually. I had a lot of free time and wanted something that I could do that would give back positively to the community and something that I could be passionate about. As well as going to the regular calls that we do go to, I've been able to build on my own confidence and also learn a whole range of new skills. A lot of which I never thought I'd ever be capable of doing. Things like growing breathing apparatus, performing road accident rescue, becoming an officer of this brigade was a really big achievement for me. It's something that six years ago I don't know if I would have imagined happening but I'm really proud to be able to hold that role and hopefully I'm doing a good job. The biggest challenge that I've found with being a volunteer has probably been my own self-doubt or thinking that maybe I couldn't do particular tasks. It's always been really good though to prove myself wrong or to achieve things that I didn't think I'd ever be able to achieve. Some of the scenarios and some of the incidents that we attend are not very nice but the support that we get from the CFA, from our own brigade and friends and family makes up for that. It can be quite tough missing out on different events and feeling like you're missing out a little bit but overall it's been such a positive for me. I'm really lucky that my family and friends are really supportive and proud of what I do so they're always really understanding.