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This is what community looks like.
The Port Macquarie Adventist School turned from classroom to cookhouse on Wednesday, October 30, with students and teachers preparing and baking food for exhausted volunteer fire fighters.
Hundreds of man hours have gone into battling the Crestwood/Lake Innes fire with no end in sight as weather conditions continue to fluctuate throughout the afternoon and evening. You can follow this developing story on the Port Macquarie News' rolling coverage on our website.
Students will work in rotations over two days preparing, mixing and baking cookies, muffins and biscuits along with sandwiches.
The results of the production line of cooking will be delivered to fire fighters throughout Wednesday and Thursday.
Year 5 student Maya Thompson said she was making cookies as a way of saying thank you to the fire fighters.
"Taj and I are making choc chip cookies for the fire fighters," she said.
"They have been out fighting fires for a long time and we want to thank them for their work.
"I am just glad that we can say thank you to them because they are working really hard to make our community safe.
"We are baking cookies and biscuits and other treats for them at the school," she said.
Principal Joyanne Walsh said the school decided to bake the snacks because they are part of the community.
"On Monday (when the Crestwood bush fire was threatening the area) we had fire fighters come to the school to make sure we were safe," she said.
"And we appreciated that.
"We wanted to give back to the community in some way and we thought a really good way was for the children to get involved and say thank you to the fire fighters.
"Today we will have year 5/6 students helping kindy kids and year one students while tomorrow we will have the remainder of the school involved.
"Without community, we would not exist, particularly with our fantastic parent community," she said.
"We also know that our children are going to grow up and they are going to live in community.
"So unless we teach our children how to live in a community, how are they going to know that.
"Our job as a school, other than teach reading and writing which is important, is to teach our children how to care about community, how to live in a community and to be part of a community.
"We also want them to know how to be (part of) a positive community and how they can contribute to that," she said.
There have also been some wonderful contributions to the effort from various other sections of the Port Macquarie-Hastings community.
The Port Macquarie and Forster-Tuncurry Salvation Army are on standby to provide hot meals to volunteer fire fighters.
The Salvos are using the Kendall Showground facilities as a base when required.
They were set up at the showground on Tuesday evening and transported hot meals to Lake Cathie and Bonny Hills RFS sheds.
Camden Haven Show Society secretary Jody Nelson-Gleeson said the Kendall Showground would be made available if required.
"It is an ever-changing situation (the fire)," she said.
"I think everything is a bit of a waiting game but if the fire does flare up again the showground will be available to the Salvos.
"They used us as a base and prepared meals before serving them up to deliver to the volunteers."
The Laurieton United Services Club was also on standby to act as an evacuation centre if conditions worsen.
Spokesperson Rob Dwyer said the club was certainly here for the community and we will remain vigilant.
"If any SES, RFS or volunteers need assistance with food or drinks we are here to help," he said.
"If we are required as an evacuation centre throughout the day we will certainly provide that (service) to the community."
Hastings Secondary College Westport Campus is also on standby as an evacuation centre.
More on the Crestwood/Lake Innes bush fire:
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