Growing up in a single parent household and living in public housing, Origin employee Mark Bernhardt felt that volunteering with the Beacon Foundation’s My Road online mentoring program was where he could make the most difference.

“If you told me when I left school in year 10 that I’d have a degree under my belt and be in a senior leadership position, I would never have believed you,’’ Mark says.

Mark is now a senior HSE business partner with Origin’s LPG business at Minto. Origin funds a philanthropic foundation to support education programs as well as its employee volunteering program, Give Time.

One of the foundation’s community partners is the Beacon Foundation and its My Road program matches volunteer mentors with disadvantaged students to teach them about potential career paths and the world of work.

Mark said: “It’s a really good feeling to know that you are potentially making a difference to a kid that may otherwise not have the opportunity to speak to someone about a future career.’’

Beacon’s online delivery manager Lisa Matthews said: “Mark has never let us down … At times, Mark has volunteered to mentor in multiple MyRoad sessions back-to-back, knowing we are in need.’’

When devastation struck the Glen Innes community, Jennifer Louise Smith realised that although she couldn’t donate to the relief efforts financially, she could help in other ways. She knew she could provide a home to one of the 70 households who no longer had somewhere to live and provide them with some food from her café, Peppermints Coffee Lounge, and cover the costs of their power.

Jennifer called EnergyAustralia to get the power reconnected to a residential unit she owns behind her café. She spoke to business consultant Tim Van Den Bos. He spoke to his manager to see if EnergyAustralia could do anything to support Jennifer and the family she was hoping to put into the unit.

Tim’s manager agreed to cover the cost of the reconnection and to refund the cost of one month’s electricity.

Tim said: “I've been working at EnergyAustralia for nearly 11 years, and I’ve never received a call quite like the one I received from Jennifer …She said that while she didn’t have deep pockets to donate cash, she could offer temporary accommodation to a family in need. Jennifer didn’t ask for any special discounts or favours.’’

When COVID-19 restrictions locked down Bupa Aged Care Ballarat in March, physiotherapy assistant Hugo Crystal knew the residents would be frustrated by the loss of their normal activities so he “decided to do something about it’’.

Hugo, an amateur illustrator, started doodling about five years ago. He realised his drawings would be a perfect opportunity to socially interact with the residents.

He arrived two hours before his shift to talk with residents and start the initial sketches and continued working on them when he got home. Hugo said: “When a family member of a resident saw the illustration I did of them, they burst into tears … they were tears of happiness and emotion.’’

He spent his childhood in and out of foster homes and had no concept of family until he started working at the care home. He now counts all 144 residents as his grandparents.  

Ballarat Mayor Ben Taylor said Hugo had “no doubt brought a smile to many people’’ and Bupa CEO Hisham El-Ansary said through the drawings Hugo had helped residents “feel loved, listened to and valued’’.

While John Appleby, a Coles regional manager in NSW, was supporting hundreds of team members across multiple stores, his own family was being evacuated from their Batemans Bay home. At the height of the bushfire disaster, Batemans Bay Coles was the only supermarket open in town for three days.

With roads blocked and little external help available, John and his team kept the store open, using gas generators to maintain power supply amid frequent outages. John and one of the Coles bakers worked through the night to ensure there was fresh bread to feed exhausted firefighters, police, volunteers and the local community.

He made sure meals and essentials were donated to emergency crews, nursing homes and evacuation centres as well as donating four pallets of fruit and vegetables to Mogo Zoo.

Peter Volf, the Chief Inspector of Policy for the Bega Valley Sector of the South Coast District, said: “Despite the adversity John and his team faced – fires raging around the area, no electricity, no phone service, roads in and out of the area blocked – he selflessly continued to operate his stores so that he could feed his community.’’

Simon Doyle, a health management consultant at EY, used the offer of a three-month sabbatical during the height of COVID to return to his former job fulltime as an emergency doctor in Melbourne.

Simon split his time between the St Vincent’s Hospital Emergency Department and one of Melbourne’s busiest COVID clinics. When his three-month sabbatical was complete, he knew he wasn’t ready to step away. He continues to work in the ED once a week.

For Simon, the experience of working as a doctor during Australia’s most serious health crisis in recent history, showed him how quickly we can adapt and change to make serious improvements within our health system.

Simon has already started working with EY clients, using insights from his experience that will improve process, efficiency and have a positive impact on the healthcare industry, contributing to EY’s purpose of building a better working world.

EY Oceania CEO Tony Johnson said: “Simon has shown immense courage and selflessness by going straight to the COVID front line in Melbourne, where he was able to do more than help patients, he supported positive systemic change, combining his professional expertise with his skills as a doctor and intimate knowledge of the health system.”

After spending a terrifying night with fellow evacuees on the Kingscote Jetty at Kangaroo Island, BankSA Branch Manager Kaytee Collins headed straight to the branch, opened the doors and started to get the message out for anyone who needed help to drop by the bank.

Kaytee, who is a local-born resident of Kingscote and has managed the branch for five years, then got to work. “On that first day, most of the customers didn’t know where to go so they’d just turn up to branch because we were familiar.’’

“If their feet were bare, we got them some shoes. If they needed clothes, we got some,’’ Kaytee said.
“So many people had been evacuated so many times that they had become numb. They needed people to think for them and to look out for them.’’

She purchased food and fuel vouchers from local businesses to distribute to community members with nothing. She was able to do his with the backing of Westpac’s “EmpowerMe’’ program that enables bankers to provide special assistance to customers in crisis. 

In the days afterwards, she worked with BankSA’s senior management to get funding for 19 electricity generators worth $33,000 so local businesses could re-open.

From mid-Nov to Feb, Braidwood Community Bank customer relationship manager Scott Hart was in the office for just 16 days. The rest of the time he was on the fire front, first in Grafton and Lake Macquarie and then with locals battling flames at home in Braidwood.

Scott was supported by the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s unlimited paid leave policy for volunteers.

Colleague and fellow RFS volunteer Simon Disney said: “Few firefighters worked as hard through summer as Captain Scott Hart and his crew to earn the NSW Premier’s Bushfire Emergency Citation.’’

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank CEO Marnie Baker said: “Scott’s contribution, and the support of his colleagues at the Braidwood Community Bank, undoubtedly saved lives (and) continues to assist in the recovery of severely fire-affected communities.’’

From mid-Nov to Feb, Braidwood Community Bank customer relationship manager Scott Hart was in the office for just 16 days. The rest of the time he was on the fire front, first in Grafton and Lake Macquarie and then with locals battling flames at home in Braidwood.

Scott was supported by the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s unlimited paid leave policy for volunteers.

Colleague and fellow RFS volunteer Simon Disney said: “Few firefighters worked as hard through summer as Captain Scott Hart and his crew to earn the NSW Premier’s Bushfire Emergency Citation.’’

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank CEO Marnie Baker said: “Scott’s contribution, and the support of his colleagues at the Braidwood Community Bank, undoubtedly saved lives (and) continues to assist in the recovery of severely fire-affected communities.’’

After spending a terrifying night with fellow evacuees on the Kingscote Jetty at Kangaroo Island, BankSA Branch Manager Kaytee Collins headed straight to the branch, opened the doors and started to get the message out for anyone who needed help to drop by the bank.

Kaytee, who is a local-born resident of Kingscote and has managed the branch for five years, then got to work. “On that first day, most of the customers didn’t know where to go so they’d just turn up to branch because we were familiar.’’

“If their feet were bare, we got them some shoes. If they needed clothes, we got some,’’ Kaytee said.
“So many people had been evacuated so many times that they had become numb. They needed people to think for them and to look out for them.’’

She purchased food and fuel vouchers from local businesses to distribute to community members with nothing. She was able to do his with the backing of Westpac’s “EmpowerMe’’ program that enables bankers to provide special assistance to customers in crisis. 

In the days afterwards, she worked with BankSA’s senior management to get funding for 19 electricity generators worth $33,000 so local businesses could re-open.