The Community Bank Wandin-Seville donated crucial funding to four local CFA brigades on Monday 26 January.
The $40,000 boost was presented at the Rotary Club of Wandin’s Family Fun Day which was also sponsored by the bank.
Wandin CFA, Seville CFA, Gruyere CFA and Coldstream CFA each got a quarter-sized cut of the funding pie, ensuring the brigades can invest in important upgrades during the summer.
Community Bank Wandin-Seville executive director Leah Thompson said it was vital the local volunteer firefighters were looked after.
“Our local CFAs have so much volunteer involvement that it is so important their teams are looked after, instead of having to request funding for things, it is great that they can put money where they know it needs to go,” she said.
She said CFAs not only protect the community from bushfires, but they also support many local events such as the Wandin Family Fun Day.
“Outside of protecting our community, the CFA volunteers also pour so much time into so many things for our community, like being at the Fun Day ready to chat to the community about fire safety and making fire safety fun and interesting for kid.”
The CFAs expressed their gratitude on social media.
Seville CFA said it was “overwhelmed” at the generosity of the Community Bank Wandin-Seville.
“We are overwhelmed and very appreciative, such donations allows us to invest in improvements that we otherwise couldn’t achieve,” Seville CFA’s post read.
“To Wandin Rotary and all the other volunteers and clubs who make this day possible – what a great effort and we hope you have your feet up with a cold drink.”
Wandin CFA gave a “huge thank you” to the bank while Gruyere CFA were “incredibly grateful” for the donation.
“Staying true to their name, they really are a community bank, consistently supporting us and many other community groups,” the Gruyere CFA post read.
Ms Thompson said the donations started in 2023 so the brigades could receive funding without having to go through a tedious application process.
“In 2023 we sponsored Seville CFA for new chainsaws and Wandin CFA for a new trailer, knowing that our local CFAs were struggling with funding and needing new equipment and upgrades, we wanted to help and give them a donation so that they could spend it on what they need without having to come to us with an application and go through the process.”
She said local CFAs always expressed lots of gratitude when they received the donations.
“Every year the local CFAs are so grateful and we love hearing about what they do with the donations and how it helped their brigade.
“We’re a bank in the local community and we’re here for the local community. These donations are only possible thanks to our customers that bank with us.”
