I'm fortunate to work somewhere that offers a day a year to do volunteer work. Volunteering's something I believe in, but life gets busy and I never seem to get around to it myself. Doing it as part of work means that it happens for me. And we take the opportunity to do it as a team - so I get to hang out with the people I work with in a different context.

This year we spent a day building fences for the victims of the Victorian bushfires with Blaze Aid . It was brilliant. Beautiful country, beautiful day. Sitting on the top of a hill fencing. It felt good to be doing something practical, rather than just sending money.

But what impressed me the most was how well they looked after us as volunteers. We met up at "Kev's Shed" - the base of the operations and were warmly introduced to what had happened with the fires and how everyone was coping since. We heard their stories. It gave context to the work we were about to do.

The leaders were friendly and patient. Encouraging. There was something great about tapping into life at a different pace, with a different sense of priorities and values.

And at the end of the day we met back at the Shed for happy hour, to add the stories of our day to the mix and be amongst those locals still without homes who come for dinner there every night. It wasn't that we had just done a bit of work. For a day, we were part of rebuilding this community.