Brendan Shannon's priceless acts have earnt him the title of 2021 Southern Inland Volunteer of the Year.
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The Windellama Rural Fire Service volunteer learned of his feat at a special ceremony for the NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards.
Mr Shannon was understandably grinning from ear to ear when he learned of the news on Thursday, October 7.
"It's pretty exciting and a really proud moment," he said.
"The significance for me is that even though I come from a small area of a population of about 300 people, I am able to have an impact further afield.
"It feels good to give back to the community.
"You also learn a lot of skills along the way and you do it with a great group of people.
"Being part of the RFS, I'm proud to representing all the members and my family as what I've done can't be done alone."
Mr Shannon is the senior deputy captain, executive committee member and community engagement officer of the 100 strong Windellama RFS.
He worked on many of the larger fires a couple of years ago, spending almost three months of work fighting fires full-time.
He was also part of the Southern Tablelands strike team that provided flood relief on the mid-North Coast, clearing mud and furniture from over 50 flood damaged homes.
He manages the Brigade's Facebook page and Windellama Get Ready Days, as well as writing monthly articles for the Windellama Community Newsletter.
The Awards are run by The Centre for Volunteering to recognise the outstanding effort of volunteers working across all sections of communities throughout the state.
Centre of Volunteering ceo Gemma Rygate congratulated the Windellama man on his feat.
"The past 12 months have been tough for all of us, but volunteers have continued to dig deep to support their local communities through this adversity," Ms Rygate said.
"In many cases they've had to find totally new ways of volunteering through the pandemic, but they've never given up, they've worked around it and shown enormous resilience.
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