Bulli firefighter Daniel Hatton has been named Rotary NSW Emergency Services Officer of the Year serving in a paid capacity.
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The senior firefighter with Fire & Rescue NSW at Bulli won the recognition on Friday night for going beyond his duty to serve the community.
He voluntarily followed up with families he helped rescue during the 2001 Christmas Day bushfires and has also taken on a virtual global outreach to the poorest and most vulnerable children in the world.
He has built homes in eight developing countries, including a preschool in Banda Aceh for orphans of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. He even took time off work to live in Zimbabwe so he could design and implement sustainability programs at multiple orphanages.
Mr Hatton is a board member of Vana Childcare Ministries Australia. For the past seven years he has coordinated the 15 kilometre ocean paddle as part of Wollongong Christian Surfers’ Paddle Against Poverty.
The Rotary NSW Emergency Services Officer of the Year Serving in a Voluntary Capacity is Squad Captain Timothy Lidden of Wagga Wagga who was also named Officer of the Year for the NSW Volunteer Rescue Association.
Mr Lidden is a VRA member of 24 years and is known for going beyond the call of duty. In 2010 he helped a farmer transport hundreds of sheep trapped on an island. In 2012 he made daily trips in the flood rescue boat to feed a heard of sheep. For 10 years he has also been a member of the NSW Rural Fire Service, serving in the Glenfield Brigade. He fought the Victorian Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. And in 2013 he assisted in the Blue Mountains bushfires.
Marine Rescue NSW Officer of the Year was Adolf Franco, of Berridale. NSW Ambulance Officer of the Year was helicopter retrieval critical care paramedic Christopher Wilkinson, of Bankstown. NSW Rural Fire Service Officer of the Year was Critical Incident Support Services duty officer Gordon Hill, of Cobar. And NSW State Emergency Service Officer of the Year was Graham Kinder, a unit controller at the Windellama Unit.
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