Volunteers from the Group’s civil protection team step in to make the trees in the school garden safe
A thin but strong thread ties the history of the Salce Alpini Group to the everyday life of the community. It does not run only through ceremonies, gatherings and the memory of the fallen: it flows quietly through school courtyards, through woods that need clearing after storms, along flooded roads, in the moments when someone needs a practical helping hand. It is the thread of Civil Protection.
The latest example of this quiet and precious commitment came from the nursery school in Salce, where the Group’s Civil Protection team, led by team leader Maurizio Dall’O’, stepped in to make safe the two large trees in the school garden. The trees, beautiful and imposing as only mature trees can be, had over time become a potential hazard: heavy branches, untidy crowns, and a real chance of something giving way that could have put the children, teachers and staff at risk. It was no longer a time for waiting: action was needed.
Caring for trees also invites us to read how our forests are changing. In the editorial Vaia, eight years on: the forest is green again, but it is not the same forest, Dolomiti Belluno separates the memory of the storm, the regrowth and today’s conditions. A deeper read to understand the landscape and to recognise the work of the people who look after it.
The aerial platform of the ANA Belluno Section: one tool, one network
For a job like this, goodwill and a couple of ladders are not enough: it takes technical skills, proper equipment and, above all, the ability to coordinate that makes the difference between organised volunteering and simple improvisation. Our team was able to rely on the aerial pruning platform of the A.N.A. Belluno Section, an essential tool that made it possible to reach the highest and most dangerous branches while working in complete safety, both for those working at height and for those on the ground.
The job covered not only the pruning itself but also collecting and disposing of the cut branches, leaving the school garden clean, tidy and, above all, safe. No detail was overlooked and no stage left half done: this is how our Civil Protection works.
Skill, preparation, availability: the three key words
The team leader himself stresses it in his report on the job: “The operation was carried out in complete safety thanks to the preparation and skill of the volunteers.” These are not empty words. Behind every job carried out by the Salce Alpini Group’s civil protection team there are hours of training, drills and refresher courses, and a culture of risk that is learned in the field. Our volunteers do not improvise: they prepare, they organise, they coordinate. And when the time comes to act, they do so with that calm determination that marks an alpino in every setting.
Their availability — a word that carries a very particular weight for those who volunteer — is the most valuable resource the community of Salce can count on. They do not wait to be asked twice. They do not ask for the spotlight. They get on with it.
One of the most active teams in the province and in the Section
Anyone who knows the world of Alpini civil protection in the Belluno area knows well that the Salce Group’s team has never stood on the sidelines. Within the A.N.A. Belluno Section — which includes important and well-organised groups — our team has built a solid reputation over the years, made of constant presence, jobs carried out professionally and a speed of response that few can match.
From weather emergencies to traffic support, from restoring the land to working with local institutions, the Salce civil protection team has shown, year after year, that it is a point of reference not only for its own Group but for the whole Alpini community of the province. It is a recognition that does not come from above: it is earned in the field, through work.
The community of Salce and its volunteers
There is something deeply fitting in the fact that it was the Alpini volunteers who took care of the trees in the nursery school garden. A school is the place of the little ones, of the future, of the care a community has for the generations to come. Keeping it safe, in every respect, says a great deal about those who do it.
The community of Salce is “always active”, as the team leader’s report puts it — and it is true. But this activity does not come from nowhere: it comes from people who choose, every time, to put the common good before their own convenience. People who spend their weekends in a Civil Protection uniform instead of relaxing at home. People who deserve, at the very least, heartfelt thanks. The team leader’s thanks are the most direct. Ours, as a Group, are just as sincere.
Thank you to all the volunteers of the Salce Alpini Group’s Civil Protection team.
Your example is, every time, a source of pride for all of us.
Related reading: Salce’s first Parish Bulletin (October 1927).
