Pandemic is shrinking guard and duty hours

Created: 06/11/2022, 18:00

By: Bernd Heinzinger

In the future, the Finsing water rescue service will have an overview from the water with their new stand-up paddle board, which was purchased thanks to a donation from the Vilgertshofer carpentry workshop.

Our picture shows (from left) Sebastian Hagn, Chairwoman Lydia Bauer, Martin Vilgertshofer from the joinery of the same name, Technical Manager Nina Fink, Deputy Chairwoman Daniela Grabmeier, Hüttenwart Markus Reiser, Deputy Youth Leader Theresa Moser and Secretary Hans-Rudolf Suhre.

© Wasserwacht

The Finsing water rescue service had a lot less to do in 2020 and 2021 than usual. Now there is great joy about easing.

Finsing - finally living socially again: That was on the program at the annual general meeting of the local water rescue group in Finsing.

After the official part, there was a barbecue and partying into the night.

“It is so important that we were allowed to do this again.

That makes volunteering so much better,” emphasized Chairwoman Lydia Bauer.

Of course, the Finsing water rescue service was not spared from the pandemic either, which has been particularly noticeable in the past two years with the guard and deployment hours.

The chair reported a total of around 2700 hours worked in 2021 - 688 of them in security and medical service, and more than 1500 hours were invested in training.

Compared to 2020 (2260 hours), this means a slight increase.

But before the pandemic, the number was easily doubled, and Bauer calculated what was going on: the water rescue service had to do without youth work with competitions (1400 hours), SommerSound (600), further training (600) and much more: “In the In total, I come to around 3,600 missing hours compared to the 2019 statistics.”

Nevertheless, a lot has been done.

From June to August there was the “Tips and tricks for learning to swim” campaign every weekend (we reported), plus four swimming courses during the summer holidays and two more in the fall: “That was definitely a mammoth task,” said the chairperson in retrospect.

Better signage for the bathing pond as part of the municipal safety concept, new T-shirts and a new drying facility for water rescue suits etc. also caused some work for the board.

When looking at the number of members afterwards, there was a slight decrease to be seen.

There are currently 279 women and men at the water rescue service, 16 fewer than a year ago.

However, this is mainly due to the deletion of "dead files", explained Bauer.

There is still a strong rush for young people, the waiting list is currently full.

According to the chairman, the association could do with more volunteer group leaders.

A total of 37 members took part in the security service last year, with Lisa Buchmann making it to first place in the internal ranking with 41 hours worked.

The ex-chairman Hans-Rudolf Suhre invested a proud 119 hours in the training and thus made it to the top of the local group in this category.

Bauer particularly wanted to mention Sebastian Hagn's successful qualification as a first-aid trainer.

This means that two members of the association can now lead such courses.

During training, Manuel Fink and Theresa Moser shared first place with 23 days each.

Youth leader Lena Lex reported on the youth work of the water rescue service.

The youngsters were able to complete swimming training, group lessons, a first-aid course and help with the security service.

The tent camp, on the other hand, fell victim to the pandemic, and there was an action day as a substitute.

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Before the relaxed part of the evening, the board had a nice task to complete: Hans-Rudolf Suhre, who still invests a lot of time in his training today, headed the association as chairman for 30 years.

He recently celebrated his 70th birthday, and on this occasion he was presented with theater tickets for the Passion Play to his obvious delight.

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