Residents Appreciate Smoke Detector Battery Changing Service

The 5th & 6th of April 2008 saw a new team take over the Smoke Detector Battery Changing service for the aged and infirm in Ballarat. Jim Nugent and Trevor Ryan teamed to co-ordinate the weekend after having to virtually reinvent the system following all the previous records being lost due to water flooding into a storeroom.

This service is provided each year by members of the Rotary Club of Wendouree Breakfast to coincide with the end of Daylight Saving Time.

The Ballarat City Council publicises the opportunity each year through its newsletter and eligible residents are encouraged to contact Rotarian Phillip Lee’s office to have their name recorded. The task is then to schedule a visit sometime over the weekend having regard to when they will be at home. The next stage is to team club members together depending on their availability, who has a short ladder, who has a tall ladder and who has a vehicle big enough to take a ladder.

A Risk Training session and ladder demonstration was also held for the Club members to minimise the chances of someone coming to grief.

Somehow it all came together, even if that meant that members were covering the same streets at different times over the 2 days – and of course there’s always someone who isn’t home at the scheduled time, meaning another visit (or 3!).

One repeat visit though was because the previous team could not work out how to get to the battery in the smoke detector (it’s amazing just how many varieties there are). Jim and Trevor made a special trip to the person’s home and borrowed a screw driver only to find that it was a wired-in detector which had a non-accessible back up battery!

By the end of the weekend though all those who had booked in had been visited. Another great service which involved nearly every member of the club.