Sweet joy of santa

Manjimup emergency services were spreading joy once again at their annual Christmas eve lolly run. SES, police, fire brigade, and ambulance workers all joined forces with Santa to hand out lollies to families across town. St John Ambulance emergency medical technician Rebecca Wallace said the lolly run was all about having fun. “The idea is to bring a bit of happiness and joy,” she said. “We drive around and make as much noise as we possibly can, throw as many lollies as we possibly can and have a bit of fun really. “It’s great to see all the families ... everyone runs out and you get lots of thank yous.” The lolly run began three years ago and typically starts with a visit to Baptistcare Moonya, followed by two teams of a fire engine, an ambulance, a police car, and SES car tackling each half of the town, and then joining up on the main strip to ring their sirens. Ms Wallace said the event felt special for the emergency services after what had been a tough year. “With so many things that we haven’t been able to do, this is one we still can,” she said. “Especially for us, we do so many bad things around this time with car crashes and everything, so it’s a bubble of happy.”