Lynne Mowbray | Emergency service representatives gathered at the Maclean Hospital on Thursday to present a cheque for $450 to the Maclean/Lower Clarence Hospital Auxiliary. The money was raised during this year’s ‘000’ social day which was held earlier in the year, at the Bowlo Sports and Leisure Yamba. Organiser of the annual event Sergeant Darren Williams of the Yamba Police said that there is a social network within the lower river 000, which is made up of the emergency services; ambulance, fire brigade (FRNSW) and police. “Within those groups we get together and have social days and the last one was an Ironman Challenge,” Sgt Williams said. “Our Ironman Challenge consisted of lawn bowls, mini putt putt golf and ten pin bowling and we raised money for charity. The decision was made to donate this money to the Hospital Auxiliary and the basis of that is because of the nature of the business that we’re all in, it’s inevitable that one of us may have to use these services. “But it’s not only that, it’s also a community thing and we like to put money back into our local community,” he said. Sgt Williams said that the social days give the emergency service workers an opportunity to get to know each other and their families on a social level and gives them a chance to network and relax away from the pressure of their day to day work as first responders. “The social days provide an opportunity to network within those organisations so that when we go to jobs, we’re familiar with one another and it’s a lot easier to get things done and we can have a bit of a joke with one another when we’re at scenes to make things run smoothly,” Sgt Williams said. “The 000 committee would like to thank the Yamba Bowling Club and in particular Craig in the restaurant who kindly donated his services and the food for the day for us, which allowed us to donate more money to the Auxiliary. “We donated the money to the Hospital Auxiliary because we got wind that they were also trying to raise a lot of funds at the moment for the $145,000 ultrasound machine so we’re trying to put money into that as well,” he said. President of the Maclean/Lower Clarence Hospital Auxiliary (MLCHA) Sandra Bradbury thanked the 000 emergency services for their donation. “We would like to thank these guys for coming and giving up their time, and for their generous donation,” Ms Bradbury said. The MLCHA has been asked by the Executive Management Committee of the Clarence Health Service for a new Ultrasound machine for Maclean District Hospital. It would allow Maclean to have improved diagnostic quality and would be a huge benefit to Maclean Hospital and the local community. Cost for the unit is approximately $130,000 but two additional probes are required, which brings the price to around $145,000. This year the MLCHA have donated over $96,000 to the Maclean Hospital.