Leone and Ronald Nicholls recognised for supporting volunteer emergency services through their business

The owners of Nicholls Coaches bus charter service have won an award for supporting an employee in hid volunteering with the local bush fire brigade.

The local bus service was among the 24 businesses, organisations and self-employed volunteers recognised at the annual Volunteer Employer Recognition Awards ceremony in Bunbury on November 12.

Leone and Ronald Nicholls have been running the school bus and charter service out of their Narrogin office for almost 40 years.

William Darvey is an employee of the business who also volunteers with the Narrogin Fire and Rescue Service.

Mr Darvey nominated Nicholls Coaches for the award for always allowing him to attend call-outs and deployments at full pay.

Ms Nicholls said they were surprised and thrilled to have received the award. “It is nice to get that kind of recognition, not that we do it for that reason, of course,” she said.

“But it was nice of William to nominate us, and it was lovely to be recognised.”

Mr Nicholls said he had always volunteered with the local bush fire brigade, and he felt it was important his employees could do the same.

“My bosses always let me go and as soon as you got a call, you’d be on your way,” he said.

“You do it for the community because Narrogin’s not a bad little community and there’s lots of good people out there.

“So people should do the same and let their employees go every time they get a job.”

The Shire of Narrogin was also recognised at the awards ceremony for being flexible with its employees’ volunteer commitments.

The Shire has encouraged its employees to attend incidents, and supports them with deployments to emergencies such as to the NSW bushfires in 2019-20.