Like many people on the NSW South Coast, last summer's bushfires changed the life of Anglicare staff member, Pauline Sullivan.
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As the fires spread towards the coast, the Moruya local joined the Anglicare team to provide support to scores of families sheltering in the nearby evacuation centre.
But for Pauline, her service was a way of giving back to an organisation that had helped her through her own dark times.
Her husband had passed away three years before, and her adult son, who is a disability services client with Anglicare, was diagnosed with an incurable heart condition in November just before the fires began.
"Honestly, Anglicare have cared for my son so well. I couldn't have asked for more support," she said. "The work helped me to cope. I was glad to help because I was in such a bad place before the fires."
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She said she was inspired by the way Anglicare responded to the fires.
"Staff members who lost their own homes continued to work helping other who were homeless and needing food and other emergency relief."
As the situation deteriorated and roads closed, Pauline continued to hand out food, clothing, bedding, blankets and dealing with a disastrously damaged sewerage system at the centre.
"I was anxious and a little scared but all I wanted to do was help," recalls Pauline. "I'd been a volunteer with Anglicare for 11 years so there was no question."
In the aftermath of the fires, Pauline helped expand Anglicare's emergency relief service in Moruya with the creation of the Vulcan Street Community Services Hub and became employed as a permanent staff member. She credits the work as helping pull her out of depression.
Pauline knows the community is still recovering, and that the lead up to Christmas with all its associated expenses are causing a lot of stress for families who area already vulnerable.
But she's committed to staying the course and being there for people to help them recover.
"Each person who comes to our service matters. We'll do whatever we can to support them," she said. "It's an honour to do this work."
Another of the many local groups who swung into action was ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency).
Volunteer Shannon Paull said the group organised for caravans to be purchased and given to people who had lost their homes.
ADRA has helped 25 victims in the shire.
"ADRA has always been a disaster relief agency in this area," Shannon said. "We usually do foreign aid, but we also do aid work in Australia."
