Volunteering
Volunteering is considered an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial or social gain "to benefit another person, group or organization". Volunteering is renowned for skill development and is intended to promote goodness or to improve human quality of life. Volunteering may have positive benefits for the volunteer as well as for the person or community served, it is intended to make contacts for possible employment. Many volunteers are trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster; the verb was first recorded in 1755. It was derived from the noun volunteer, in C.1600, "one who offers himself for military service," from the Middle French voluntaire. In the non-military sense, the word was first recorded during the 1630s; the word volunteering has more recent usage—still predominantly military—coinciding with the phrase community service. In a military context, a volunteer army is a military body whose soldiers chose to enter service, as opposed to having been conscripted.
Such volunteers are given regular pay. During this time, America experienced the Great Awakening. People realized the cause for movement against slavery. Younger people started helping the needy in their communities. In 1851, the first YMCA in the United States was started, followed seven years by the first YWCA. During the American Civil War, women volunteered their time to sew supplies for the soldiers and the "Angel of the Battlefield" Clara Barton and a team of volunteers began providing aid to servicemen. Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881 and began mobilizing volunteers for disaster relief operations, including relief for victims of the Johnstown Flood in 1889; the Salvation Army is one of the largest organizations working for disadvantaged people. Though it is a charity organization, it has organized a number of volunteering programs since its inception. Prior to the 19th century, few formal charitable organizations existed to assist people in need. In the first few decades of the 20th century, several volunteer organizations were founded, including the Rotary International, Kiwanis International, Association of Junior Leagues International, Lions Clubs International.
The Great Depression saw one of the first large-scale, nationwide efforts to coordinate volunteering for a specific need. During World War II, thousands of volunteer offices supervised the volunteers who helped with the many needs of the military and the home front, including collecting supplies, entertaining soldiers on leave, caring for the injured. After World War II, people shifted the focus of their altruistic passions to other areas, including helping the poor and volunteering overseas. A major development was the Peace Corps in the United States in 1960; when President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a War on Poverty in 1964, volunteer opportunities started to expand and continued into the next few decades; the process for finding volunteer work became more formalized, with more volunteer centers forming and new ways to find work appearing on the World Wide Web. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, about 64.5 million Americans, or 26.5 percent of the adult population, gave 7.9 billion hours of volunteer service worth $175 billion.
This calculates at 3 hours per week at a rate of $22 per hour. Volunteer hours in the UK are similar. In 1960, after the so called revolutionary war in Cuba ended, Ernesto Che Guevara created the concept of volunteering work, it was created with the intention that workers across the country volunteer a few hours of work on their work centers. Many schools on all education levels offer service-learning programs, which allow students to serve the community through volunteering while earning educational credit. According to Alexander Astin in the foreword to Where's the Learning in Service-Learning? by Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles, Jr."...we promote more wide-spread adoption of service-learning in higher education because we see it as a powerful means of preparing students to become more caring and responsible parents and citizens and of helping colleges and universities to make good on their pledge to'serve society.'" When describing service learning, the Medical Education at Harvard says, "Service learning unites academic study and volunteer community service in mutually reinforcing ways....service learning is characterized by a relationship of partnership: the student learns from the service agency and from the community and, in return, gives energy, commitment and skills to address human and community needs."
Volunteering in service learning seems to have the result of engaging both mind and heart, thus providing a more powerful learning experience. While not recognized by everyone as a legitimate approach, research on the efficacy of service learning has grown. Janet Eyler and Dwight E. Giles conducted a national study of American college students to ascertain the significance of service learning programs, According to Eyler and Giles,"These surveys, conducted before and after a semester of community service, examine the impact of service-learning on students." They describe their experience with students involved in service-learning in this way: "Students like service-learning. When we sit down with a group of students to discuss service-learning experiences, their enthusiasm is unmistakable....it is clear that believe that what they
South Africa
South Africa the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation, it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status; the remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures and religions, its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, the fourth highest number in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most coloured and white South Africans.
The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, regular elections have been held for a century. However, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a large role in the country's recent history and politics; the National Party imposed apartheid in 1948. After a long and sometimes violent struggle by the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, the repeal of discriminatory laws began in 1990. Since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the country's liberal democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is referred to as the "rainbow nation" to describe the country's multicultural diversity in the wake of apartheid; the World Bank classifies South Africa as an upper-middle-income economy, a newly industrialised country.
Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, the 34th-largest in the world. In terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa; however and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed and living on less than US$1.25 a day. South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, maintains significant regional influence; the name "South Africa" is derived from the country's geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation, the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, reflecting its origin from the unification of four separate British colonies. Since 1961, the long form name in English has been the "Republic of South Africa". In Dutch, the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika. Since 1994, the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning "south", is a colloquial name for South Africa, while some Pan-Africanist political parties prefer the term "Azania".
South Africa contains human-fossil sites in the world. Archaeologists have recovered extensive fossil remains from a series of caves in Gauteng Province; the area, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been branded "the Cradle of Humankind". The sites include one of the richest sites for hominin fossils in the world. Other sites include Gondolin Cave Kromdraai, Coopers Cave and Malapa. Raymond Dart identified the first hominin fossil discovered in Africa, the Taung Child in 1924. Further hominin remains have come from the sites of Makapansgat in Limpopo Province and Florisbad in the Free State Province, Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal Province, Klasies River Mouth in Eastern Cape Province and Pinnacle Point and Die Kelders Cave in Western Cape Province; these finds suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa from about three million years ago, starting with Australopithecus africanus. There followed species including Australopithecus sediba, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo helmei, Homo naledi and modern humans.
Modern humans have inhabited Southern Africa for at least 170,000 years. Various researchers have located pebble tools within the Vaal River valley. Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were present south of the Limpopo River by the 4th or 5th century CE, they displaced and absorbed the original Khoisan speakers, the Khoikhoi and San peoples. The Bantu moved south; the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoisan people; the Xhosa reached the Great Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. As they migrated, these larger Iron Age populations
Sydney
Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Port Jackson and extends about 70 km on its periphery towards the Blue Mountains to the west, Hawkesbury to the north, the Royal National Park to the south and Macarthur to the south-west. Sydney is made up of 40 local government areas and 15 contiguous regions. Residents of the city are known as "Sydneysiders"; as of June 2017, Sydney's estimated metropolitan population was 5,230,330 and is home to 65% of the state's population. Indigenous Australians have inhabited the Sydney area for at least 30,000 years, thousands of engravings remain throughout the region, making it one of the richest in Australia in terms of Aboriginal archaeological sites. During his first Pacific voyage in 1770, Lieutenant James Cook and his crew became the first Europeans to chart the eastern coast of Australia, making landfall at Botany Bay and inspiring British interest in the area.
In 1788, the First Fleet of convicts, led by Arthur Phillip, founded Sydney as a British penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia. Phillip named the city Sydney in recognition of 1st Viscount Sydney. Penal transportation to New South Wales ended soon after Sydney was incorporated as a city in 1842. A gold rush occurred in the colony in 1851, over the next century, Sydney transformed from a colonial outpost into a major global cultural and economic centre. After World War II, it experienced mass migration and became one of the most multicultural cities in the world. At the time of the 2011 census, more than 250 different languages were spoken in Sydney. In the 2016 Census, about 35.8% of residents spoke a language other than English at home. Furthermore, 45.4% of the population reported having been born overseas, making Sydney the 3rd largest foreign born population of any city in the world after London and New York City, respectively. Despite being one of the most expensive cities in the world, the 2018 Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranks Sydney tenth in the world in terms of quality of living, making it one of the most livable cities.
It is classified as an Alpha+ World City by Globalization and World Cities Research Network, indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world. Ranked eleventh in the world for economic opportunity, Sydney has an advanced market economy with strengths in finance and tourism. There is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Sydney and the city is promoted as Australia's financial capital and one of Asia Pacific's leading financial hubs. Established in 1850, the University of Sydney is Australia's first university and is regarded as one of the world's leading universities. Sydney is home to the oldest library in Australia, State Library of New South Wales, opened in 1826. Sydney has hosted major international sporting events such as the 2000 Summer Olympics; the city is among the top fifteen most-visited cities in the world, with millions of tourists coming each year to see the city's landmarks. Boasting over 1,000,000 ha of nature reserves and parks, its notable natural features include Sydney Harbour, the Royal National Park, Royal Botanic Garden and Hyde Park, the oldest parkland in the country.
Built attractions such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the World Heritage-listed Sydney Opera House are well known to international visitors. The main passenger airport serving the metropolitan area is Kingsford-Smith Airport, one of the world's oldest continually operating airports. Established in 1906, Central station, the largest and busiest railway station in the state, is the main hub of the city's rail network; the first people to inhabit the area now known as Sydney were indigenous Australians having migrated from northern Australia and before that from southeast Asia. Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity first started to occur in the Sydney area from around 30,735 years ago. However, numerous Aboriginal stone tools were found in Western Sydney's gravel sediments that were dated from 45,000 to 50,000 years BP, which would indicate that there was human settlement in Sydney earlier than thought; the first meeting between the native people and the British occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula and encountered the Gweagal clan.
He noted in his journal that they were somewhat hostile towards the foreign visitors. Cook was not commissioned to start a settlement, he spent a short time collecting food and conducting scientific observations before continuing further north along the east coast of Australia and claiming the new land he had discovered for Britain. Prior to the arrival of the British there were 4,000 to 8,000 native people in Sydney from as many as 29 different clans; the earliest British settlers called the natives Eora people. "Eora" is the term the indigenous population used to explain their origins upon first contact with the British. Its literal meaning is "from this place". Sydney Cove from Port Jackson to Petersham was inhabited by the Cadigal clan; the principal language groups were Darug and Dharawal. The earliest Europeans to visit the area noted that the indigenous people were conducting activities such as camping and fishing, using trees for bark and food, collecting shells, cooking fish. Britain—before that, England—and Ireland had for a long time been sending their convicts across the Atlantic to the American colonies.
That trade was ended with the Declaration of Independence by the United States in 1776. Britain decided in 1786 to found a new penal outpost in the territory discovered by Cook some 16 years ear
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
Cronulla, New South Wales
Cronulla is a beachside suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Boasting numerous surf beaches and swimming spots, the suburb attracts both tourists and Greater Sydney residents. Cronulla is located 26 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. Cronulla is located on a peninsula framed by Botany Bay to the north, Bate Bay to the east, Port Hacking to the south, Gunnamatta Bay to the west; the neighbouring suburb of Woolooware lies to the west of Cronulla, Burraneer lies to the southwest. The Kurnell peninsula, the site of the first landfall on the eastern coastline made by Captain James Cook in 1770, is reached by driving northeast out of Cronulla on Captain Cook Drive. Cronulla is derived from Abdi, meaning ‘‘place of the pink seashells’’ in the dialect of the area's Aboriginal inhabitants, the Gweagal, who were a clan of the Tharawal tribe of Indigenous Australians, they Inhabited the southern geographic areas of Sydney.
The beaches were named by Surveyor Robert Dixon who surveyed here in 1827-28 and, by 1840, the main beach was still known as Karranulla. In July 1852 the schooner Venus was wrecked on the beach, referred to in newspaper reports as Cooranulla. Matthew Flinders and George Bass explored and mapped the coastline and Port Hacking estuary in 1796 and the southernmost point of Cronulla is named Bass and Flinders Point in their honour. John Connell received a grant of 380 acres in 1835. Thomas Holt owned most of the land. Holt built Sutherland House on the foreshore of Gwawley Bay in 1818, on the eastern side of Sylvania. In 1888 master mariner Captain Joseph Henry Rounce Spingall became the pioneering resident of Cronulla when, with his family, he constructed the two storey'Oriental Guest House' on land above where today's North Cronulla Hotel sits; the Depression of 1890 and a lack of reliable transport access from Sutherland saw "The Captain's" pub sold. The Cronulla area was subdivided in 1895 and land was offered for sale at 10 pounds per acre.
In 1899, the government named the area Gunnamatta. On 26 February 1908, it was changed to Cronulla and Gunnamatta was used for the name of the bay, on the western side. After the Illawarra railway line was built to Sutherland in 1885, the area became popular for picnics and swimming. Steam trams operated between Cronulla and Sutherland from 1911. Many regulars rented beach houses at Cronulla every year for school holidays; the Oriental Hotel was built by Captain Spingall in 1888, on the present site of apartments behind the North Cronulla Hotel. The Cecil Hotel was located on the foreshore of South Cronulla and the Ritz Café was popular with holiday-makers; the Cecil Apartments were built on the former site of this hotel. The steam trams were replaced by the Cronulla branch of the Illawarra railway line when it opened in 1939; the post office opened in January 1891, known as Cronulla Beach, but closed in 1893. It reopened in 1907 and the name was changed to Cronulla in 1929; the Cronulla School of Arts was established in 1904.
The original wooden building was demolished and replaced by the current School of Arts building in November 1912 and is now one of the oldest buildings in Cronulla. The first public school opened in 1910. In 1955, Cronulla Library opened. From the 1950s, many of the guest houses began being replaced by high rise flats. Though it developed as a residential area, Cronulla remained popular with beachgoers and tourists. Several hotels and serviced apartments operate today; the Cronulla Bicentennial Plaza opened in February 1989. In 2005 the beachfront at Cronulla was the scene of publicised mob disturbances and violent confrontations; these incidents continued over a number of days and spread to other areas in Sydney. Cronulla has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: Captain Cook Drive: Cronulla sand dunes Cronulla railway: Cronulla railway station 41 Cronulla Street: Cronulla Post Office 202 Nicholson Parade: Cronulla Fisheries Centre Cronulla is a popular tourist attraction and attracts many beachgoers from all over Sydney.
Cronulla Beach features a long stretch of sand that runs from Boat Harbour to North Cronulla, followed by rock pools and another sandy beach at South Cronulla. The beaches of Cronulla from north to south are: Boat Harbour, Wanda Beach, Elouera Beach, North Cronulla Beach, Cronulla Beach, Blackwoods Beach, Shelly Beach and Oak Park. Local names apply to various parts of the beach, such as The Alley, between Cronulla Beach and North Cronulla, The Wall, between North Cronulla and Elouera, between Elouera and Wanda, Greenhills, to the north of Wanda, near the mouth of the Port Hacking estuary, Voodoo Reef and The Point; the beaches are popular recreational areas for swimming, bodyboarding and other water sports. Shark Island, just off Cronulla Beach, is a famous surfing and bodyboarding spot, the site of the annual Shark Island Challenge bodyboarding contest. Gunnamatta Bay provides protected swimming at the baths off Gunnamatta Park. Port Hacking is a popular location for such water sports as wakeboarding.
Bass & Flinders Point is the southernmost part of Cronulla and features a monument to explorers George Bass and Matthew Flinders, who explored the Port Hacking estuary. Darook Park, Gunnamatta Park and Tonkin Park are all located on Gunnamatta Bay. Cronulla Park is located behind the beach at South Cronulla. Dunningham Park sits behind the beach at North Cronulla, shaded by large Norfolk Island Pines, it features picnic tables and a kiosk. Monro Park, featuring the Cronulla War Memorial, is located opposite Cronulla railway
Royal Life Saving Society UK
The Royal Life Saving Society UK is a drowning prevention charity founded in 1891 in the UK. It has had Royal Patronage since 1904; the Royal Life Saving Society UK is a national charity, founded in 1891 and its aim is to Safeguard lives in, on and near water. The Society has more than 13,000 members in 48 branches and 1,400 active lifesaving and lifeguarding clubs it trains over 93% of all pool and beach lifeguards throughout the UK and Ireland; the Society has had Royal Patronage since 1904. Her Majesty the Queen is the Society's Patron. HRH Prince Michael of Kent GCVO is the active Commonwealth President of the Society, it is based in the Midlands town of Worcestershire. The RLSS is part of International Life Saving Federation. Lifesaving and lifeguarding are promoted as a sport and a life skill by the Royal Life Saving Society UK. There are over 1,400 lifesaving clubs based throughout the UK and Ireland, which teach skills such as drowning prevention, life support and personal survival; the learning of lifesaving takes place in a variety of water environments, such as swimming pools, inland water venues and at coastal locations.
Clubs coach their members towards achieving RLSS UK awards as part of the Survive & Save Programme. The flagship award being the Bronze Medallion. For a description of the Medallion itself see Bronze Medallion. Subsequent awards under the Survive & Save programme follow a path to silver and gold though four disciplines of lifesaving, open water and still water; the final award of lifesaving is that of Distinction, an award that demands a high level of skill. The Distinction is awarded on passing three 3 gold awards. Training programmes exist from young children to adults; some lifesaving and lifeguard clubs operate as volunteer organisations, providing safety cover at locations where there would otherwise be none. The RLSS organises both national and regional speed and skills competitions and many clubs, including university affiliated clubs field teams at these events; the RLSS offers community courses as well as vocational qualifications for pool and beach lifeguards. These vocational awards are recognised throughout the UK and Ireland and are awarded under the auspices of the Institute of Qualified Lifeguards.
These awards include the National Pool and National Beach Lifeguard Qualifications as well as the new National Pool Management Course. RLSS UK offers various courses for young people including the Rookie Lifeguard Programme, part of the governments National Plan for Teaching of Swimming developed to teach children aged 8 to 12 years old the basics in life saving. Other programmes include Young Leaders, Assistant Instructor and Rookie Instructor as well as Assistant Beach Lifeguard and Senior Lifesaving Awards. Young people have the opportunity to use their lifesaving skills in a competitive environment through the Sport Section of the Society. Lifesaving Life Support refers to the series of exams implemented by the RLSS in order to assess a lifesaver's ability in on land rescue techniques. Lifesaving Royal Life Saving Society Australia Royal Life Saving Society of Canada Lifesaving Awards homepage Lifesavers Direct British University Lifesaving Clubs Association Irish Lifesaving Foundation Lifeguards Ireland
Bronze Medallion (New Zealand and Australia)
The Bronze Medallion, signifying a qualified lifesaver, has been a lifesaving standard award of The Royal Life Saving Society - Australia and Surf Life Saving Australia for over one hundred years. It was developed in England in 1892, it has evolved over the years to accommodate the environmental conditions of Australia. In New Zealand and Australia one must gain a Bronze Medallion to become a qualified Life Saver; the qualifying test to become a Life Saver includes both theoretical and practical components although assessment conditions can vary form region to region. This includes Resuscitation First Aid Signals Communication/radios Workbook Exam Timed 400m swim in less than 13 mins in either a 25 or 50m pool Timed rescue tow, swimming 50m to a patient and towing them back within 3 min 15 sec Survival and rescue skills demonstrating a range of survival techniques and appropriate rescues for a range of different aquatic environments and scenarios Spinal injuries demonstrating basic management of a suspected spinal injury in shallow water Rescue initiative demonstrating initiative in affecting a rescue of two people who are in difficulty up to 15 metres from safety Resuscitation demonstrating effective CPR Must be within one calendar year of turning 14 400m swim in less than 13 minutes You must perform a tube and a board rescue You must demonstrate putting a patient in the recovery position You must demonstrate CPR You must demonstrate radio communication & first aid You must pass an oral test on First Aid as well as all Surf Lifesaving practices.
The Bronze Medallion has been issued in New Zealand in a number of styles. The following types have been issued; the numbering is arbitrary and other types may exist. Type 1. C. 1910. Obverse: Two swimmers in the water, one rescuing the other; the head and upper body of the person being rescued is visible but the figures of the people are not clearly defined. In the background is an indistinct shore. Around the edge in a sans-serif font are the words “THE ROYAL LIFE SAVING SOCIETY ESTABLISHED 1891” Reverse: Around the edge in the same sans-serif font are the words “QUEMCUNQUE MISERUM VEDERIS HOMINEM SCIAS” which may be translated as ‘Whomsoever you see in distress, recognize him as a fellow man.’ In the centre in two lines in a roman font are the words “AWARDED TO” followed by a space in which the recipient’s name and the date of awarding were added. The medallion is 32.5mm in diameter and nearly 3mm thick. It has a loop at the top for a ribbon suspension. Type 2. C. 1920. Obverse: Two swimmers in the water – one rescuing the other, one with his/her hands on the side of the head of the second person.
Only the heads can be seen. In the background are some hills and clouds. Otherwise details as Type 1; the medallion is 30mm in diameter and about 2.5mm thick. It has a loop at the top for a ribbon suspension. Type 3. C. 1930. Obverse: Two swimmers in the water – one rescuing the other, one with his/her hands on the side of the head of the second person; the whole bodies of both swimmers are seen. The background shore is indistinct. Otherwise details as Type 1 but the wording is in a roman font. Edge of this side has a milled pattern. Reverse; as Type 1 and the edge has a milled pattern. Size is 2.5 mm thick. With loop for ribbon suspension. Type 3A. C. 1928. As Type 3 but with the words “FOR LIFE SAVING SKILL WITH SURF LIFE LINE” on the reverse in a sans-serif font. Type 3B. C. 1934. As Type 3 but 3mm thick. See images. Type 3C. c. 1937. As Type 3 but 32.5mm diameter and 3mm thick. Oddly, the “LI” of “ESTABLISHED” is in a larger sized font. Type 4 c. 1940-47. Obverse: Instead of swimmers the central part consists of a crossed boat hook and oar forming quadrants.
In the centre is a clover form made from rope, Around this item are the words “ROYAL LIFE SAVING SOCIETY” in a sans-serif font. The word “LIFE” is uppermost. Around the edge in the same sans-serif font are the words “QUEMCUNQUE MISERUM VEDERIS HOMINEM SCIAS” as in Type 1 reverse. Reverse: Around the edge in a roman font are the words “ROYAL LIFE SAVING SOCIETY” and in a smaller size “ESTABLISHED 1891” In the centre in two lines in a roman font are the words “AWARDED TO” followed by a space in which the recipient’s name and the date of awarding were added. Size 32mm diameter and about 3mm thick. With loop for ribbon suspension. For a photograph of the medallion see Royal Life Saving Society UK. Type 4A c. 1954. Similar to Type 4 but the centre clover shape is flat rather than rounded. Smaller at just under 32mm in diameter. Type 5 c. 1960. The same as Type 4 but the reverse has “ROYAL LIFE SAVING SOCIETY” in a sans-serif font. In a smaller size in a roman font is "ESTABLISHED 1891". I.e. the tail of the ‘9’ drops below the baseline of the other numbers.
Size otherwise the same but under 2mm thick. Type 6 c. 1970–present. A small version of the obverse of Types 4 & 5 but it is uniface only, the reverse is plain although sometimes the recipient's name is added there, it is 25mm in diameter. Some of these medallions were issued with ribbons; the earliest ones, c 1910, were just a plain darkish blue ribbon. Ones were a grey-blue ground with a thin central white strip and a thin dark blue strip on either side. There is sometimes attached at the top of the ribbon a clasp containing a bar with “R. L. S. S.” Additionally another bar may be placed centrally with the current season years on it. E.g. “1961-62” Other Royal Life Saving Society medals or medallions exist such as the Intermediate Star, the Award of Merit, the Bronze Cross
