- DATE23 March 2023
An extra-long weekend of Xtreme fun at Roma Easter in the Country
We love to join our communities in celebration by supporting their events – and in Roma one of the biggest on the social calendar is the Roma Easter in the Country Festival.
The famous five-day event featured a raft of entertainment, including performances from country music stars Beccy Cole and Adam Harvey plus a range of fun activities for all ages.
NRG Services was proud to be a silver sponsor of the festival, which ran from 6-11 April.
A highlight was the NRG Xtreme Bulls on the Friday night, with the country’s elite bull riders taking on the Gill Bros Rodeo Company’s Xtreme Bulls.
Several members of team NRG saddled up for the big extra-long Easter weekend of fun, including Greg McAuliffe who enjoyed the Colour Xplosion fun run with his family.
We look forward to being involved with this great weekend for many years to come.
The coolest program in school
Our Cold Room program is continuing to create cool career pathways for Toowoomba students, with enrolments full for this year’s program.
For the second year in a row, we’ve teamed up with TAFE Queensland to deliver a Certificate II in Electrotechnology (Career Start) to students at St Mary’s College and Toowoomba Grammar.
As part of the program, students can earn a qualification in the booming refrigeration industry and have the chance to be offered an apprenticeship with NRG Services.
They also get to build three cold rooms under the close supervision of NRG tradespeople.
The cold rooms built by the students involved in last year’s program were donated to their schools and have since been used at a number of college events.
NRG Services is looking to donate a cold room built this year to a very special charity (we will announce this soon).
NRG Services operations manager Grant McMillian said the charity could auction off the cold room to help with its fundraising efforts.
“At NRG, giving back to the community is important to us, so we are happy to be donating the cold room to such a good cause,” Mr McMillian said.
“We are also proud to be delivering a course to help deliver a clear pathway in the refrigeration sector, which is booming with opportunities.”
The Cold Room program was delivered for the first-time last year after one of our managers suggested we should work with local high schools and TAFE to boost awareness and showcase the cool work `fridgies’, as refrigeration mechanics are known.
At the end of last year’s inaugural program, two outstanding students were offered apprenticeships with NRG Services including St Mary’s Vice-Captain Lachlan Debel who started his full-time apprenticeship this year.
Lachlan had planned to study electrical engineering at university but was impressed by the real-world opportunities the NRG and TAFE collaboration offered and jumped at the chance of an apprenticeship. Read TAFE Queensland’s article on Lachlan
Delivering a life-saving impact
Did you know that LifeFlight’s Toowoomba base completed 659 missions – nearly two a day – last year?
Or that their Roma base carried out 78 missions?
These incredible statistics are among the many reasons why NRG Services is immensely proud to support LifeFlight, a vital life-saving service in Queensland that provides critical medical care and hospital airlifts to those who are seriously ill or injured.
Nearly 30 NRG employees got a glimpse into LifeFlight’s hard work and dedication during a tour of their Toowoomba Hangar on 21 April.
It was inspiring to learn about their mission and get up close to their rescue choppers and equipment.
In 2022, the organisation’s fleet of helicopters, air ambulance jets, critical care doctors, flight nurses and flight paramedics came to the aid of 6978 people – a record number of people helped by the aeromedical service.
Their Toowoomba-based helicopters clocked up 1,046 mission flying hours, the equivalent of being in the air for 44 days and nights.
Out of the 659 missions in the region, 83 were for patients experiencing a medical episode or illness and 74 airlifted people who had been in a motor vehicle accident.
Another 70 missions were for patients with non-Covid respiratory issues, while 68 patients were experiencing cardiac issues and 33 had neurological problems.
These Toowoomba missions are estimated to have cost approximately $16.5 million but came at no cost to the patients.
“These statistics alone show just how vital the service that we provide is in Queensland and beyond,” LifeFlight’s philanthropy relationship manager Peter Duffy said.
“We can’t do this without the support we receive from individuals and businesses like yours, so thank you.”
In recognition of NRG’s support, our Operations Manager Tim O’Neill was presented with a Save a Life award from Emma Wagner at the recent VIP Hanger Event at the Clive Berghofer LifeFlight Centre. A former LifeFlight patient, Emma shared her story of being airlifted after a motorcycle accident. You can learn more about LifeFlight’s work in the Toowoomba region by joining the LifeFlight Darling Downs Community Facebook Group.
Supporting a mission to help vulnerable women and kids
NRG Services has helped furnish a home as part of its ongoing support to Protea Place, Toowoomba’s dedicated safe space for vulnerable women and their children.
Our Operations Manager, Tim O’Neil helped fit out the house with furniture, including a bed and mattress, bedside tables, four-seater dining table, lounge suite, TV unit and a coffee table supplied by NRG Services.
We have long been a proud supporter of Protea Place, covering one-third of the housing cost and helping fit out the houses they provide.
Protea Place has supported more than 1900 women in Toowoomba region each year. Many of these have been assisted out of homelessness and into safe accommodation.
The organisation aims to give dignity and respect to disadvantaged and vulnerable women.
We take our hard hats off to the team and everything they do for our wider community.
Kicking goals in our community
Team NRG is taking it to the rugby league field – literally.
You may have seen our NRG signage at the home ground of the Western Clydesdales, a club we are proud to support as they make their landmark return to the Hostplus Cup in 2023.
It’s a thrill to support the Clydesdales and many members of team NRG have enjoyed cheering them on from the sidelines.
To add to the excitement, three NRG Services employees are Clydesdales players: Luke Rouland, Alex Brighton and Drew Timms.
It was great to see Drew – who is the youngest player in the Western Clydesdales Cup team – recently featured on the club’s website.