Volunteers give up their time to work for other people in the community.
Today we meet some volunteers at a children's hospital. Our spotlight today is on what ‘ward’ means when it's a whole word and when it's used to end a word.



SHARON O'NEILL: In two different salons in the western suburbs of Sydney, Tony Nasso and Emma Filbey are taking great care to make their clients feel very special. It's a day job they both enjoy doing. But working in the beauty industry is not the only thing they have in common.

Tony and Emma are part of the Wednesday night crew at Radio Bedrock - Westmead Children Hospital's in-house radio station. The station's been on air in the children's wards for over a decade. But in recent months it's had a huge makeover, and now the team is looking for new recruits.

What makes an ideal volunteer?

ANDREW ROBERTSON: An exuberant, exciting, creative person who doesn't mind coming into the hospital once a week on a weeknight and just giving something back.

KERRY WILSON: It's basically a lot of fun. It's great to come in and play with the kids. If you've had a stressful day at work, it can really put you back down to earth and teach you what's important and what's not. We'll just go up to the wards, tell them who we are and just see if any kids want to come down with us and we'll bring them back at the end of the night, or if they have any requests, we can get them to call up.

EMMA FILBEY: The fact that I can make a lot of children that are sick happy, that's what keeps me going back because I know every week there's going to be different children in there. They're not going to be the same kids that were there the week before, and you get to meet a lot of people, a lot of parents, family, that sort of thing, and some beautiful little children out of it.

TONY NASSO: I love it. I look forward to it every Wednesday. It's great. Seeing kids, if they smile or they have a giggle or whatever, it just makes your day.

ANDREW ROBERTSON: When the doors close at 8 o'clock, a volunteer leaves with the sense of satisfaction and they're rewarded because the kids are here, they can see that they're making a difference, so I guess that's what keeps bringing them back.