Article written by Rumer Grace Archer
Standing on the sands of the beach in 2021, approaching the finishing line of her doctoral research, Dr Elissa Farrow felt a pull she couldn’t ignore. After years spent in boardrooms and making strategic decisions, she longed to reconnect with the earth, with community and with herself.
Curiosity quickly turned into commitment and after chatting to the Surf Lifeguard Volunteers on Cylinder Beach, it wasn’t long before Elissa had completed her Bronze Medallion course and officially became a Surf Lifesaving Volunteer with Point Lookout Surf Life Saving Club, Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island).
Elissa’s pull to the beach wasn’t random, it was rooted in memory. Having grown up on the Sunshine Coast, she has fond memories of her time spent at the beach, often watching the junior surf life savers practicing skills on the beach and yearning for an experience like that for herself.
Today volunteering at Point Lookout fills her cup, reconnects her with nature and with the community. For Elissa, the beach is more than a workplace, it’s a wellbeing space.
“You can feel the conditions of nature around you, you can actually appreciate that your breath starts changing and you’re just going ‘I’m here, I’m grounded. I’m in the community’. My toes in the sand, looking at the water and the whales going by just makes me feel gratitude.
“For me, it’s something that just definitely makes me really appreciate being able to volunteer and grateful that I have access to such beautiful parts of the world.”
This isn’t Elissa’s first volunteering experience, volunteering has shaped Elissa’s life, her wellbeing and her purpose.
“Volunteerism has been a big part of what I have done for a really, really long time,” she says.
One of her first volunteering experiences was with Amnesty International during University. While most of her time was spent developing a youth-focused campaign, a moment that stuck with her was the opportunity to dress up as the Amnesty International candle. It reminded her that volunteering “isn’t just about the heavier hitting sort of stuff.”
“It can also be an opportunity where you’re blowing up balloons and you’re being part of public awareness, advocacy or campaigning. I was dressed as this large candle with a flame up the top.”
That early experience showed Elissa that volunteering could be serious and joyful, a theme that’s run through all her service since. She has continued to seek out volunteering opportunities that challenge and fulfill her and that align with her values.
Elissa’s time on a global board for the Change Management Institute, an organisation supporting people involved in a change management profession and as a volunteer Features Editor for the Human Futures Magazine for the World Futures Studies Federation, broadened her networks and embedded in her a commitment to learning, social justice and a deep sense of connection to the community and the planet.
“And that’s why, for me, the place where I spend probably more of my volunteer efforts at the moment is with surf lifesaving because it’s ticks all those boxes for me…it really resonates with me.”
Today, Elissa runs her own business, is a keynote speaker and consultant, and a member of the Surf Life Saving Australia ICT Governance Committee and Surf Life Saving Queensland Research Panel. So how does she find the time to volunteer?
When asked how she finds the time, Elissa’s first answer is simple: good time management. But diving deeper, Elissa makes the time because it makes her feel good.
“It boosts my physical and mental health, and it makes me feel really great to contribute back to the community, so it’s just easy time to find. The benefits and the value that I get sort of offset the limitations. So, I factor in the time because I believe in the cause.”
While she acknowledges that we have never been busier, Elissa argues that volunteering doesn’t require an all or nothing attitude.
“I think for those who are thinking, ‘I don’t have time to do it’, I think people often do, but they just think that you’ve got to commit a lot of time, but you don’t have to. You could just commit an hour here and there.”
Elissa says that some people at Point Lookout Surf Life Saving Club show up and sell raffle tickets or set up and cook the BBQ for a couple of hours.
“And that time is nothing when you actually have a benefit of community and new friendships and things that actually are making a tangible difference to the community and people’s lives.”
But not all volunteer roles can be performed outside on the beach, and juggling multiple jobs and volunteer roles, Elissa has learnt the importance of balancing her time and energy.
“Sometimes it can get overwhelming when you’ve got a really busy day job, as well as needing to then focus on heavy decision making. It’s about also making sure that I have a self-care plan for me. And if for some reason I need to step back a bit from volunteering in terms of self-care, I just declare it you know as a sign of knowing myself.”
Her words are a reminder that caring for yourself is also part of caring for others.
With the multitude of volunteer opportunities available for every hobby and skill, Elissa’s advice is to start small and know that you can always change to something different.
“Reflect on what you would like to give and know that you can always change your mind if you want to do something different.”
And that is also something that Elissa’s diverse volunteering experiences, including working in domestic and family violence prevention, have taught her: the ability to self-reflect and know when something needs to change.
“…sometimes people have got a great sense of pride and commitment in the work that they do but sometimes volunteers also have to realise the time when maybe they need to change to something else as well.”
Even passion has limits, a truth Elissa learned while volunteering as Chair of a Board for a nonprofit organisation. After navigating the organisation through some major transformational processes, Elissa realised she needed to stop and reflect on her wellbeing.
“I think sometimes people don’t reflect on their own level of resilience and energy enough. Volunteers can be really passionate about the work they do and don’t quite realise that it’s time to maybe step away, into a different role or just to have a break.
“Because you’re a volunteer, like any role (paid or unpaid) it doesn’t mean that you need to be hurt through the process. For me that’s been one of my biggest learnings.”
What brings Elissa back to her volunteering role at Point Lookout isn’t just the sand and the surf, it’s the teamwork and her connection to the community and her sense of purpose. It’s also the sense of shared responsibility that keeps her coming back, a feeling that every patrol member regardless of age or ability, contributes to something bigger.
As a social scientist and a community-minded person, Elissa says she has always had a great curiosity for people. As a voluntary surf lifesaver, she is not only providing water safety but also contributing to a sense of psychological safety for the community.
“We’re not only providing people with community information or response to make their visit to Minjerribah safe, but also we’re providing a presence that means that people often come up to us while we’re in patrol and say, ‘Thanks for looking out for us’.”
And the conversations with the community are ultimately the icing on the cake for Elissa.
“That’s what also keeps me volunteering because people are fascinating and someone’s always got a story from their lived experience if you take a moment to listen. I learn a lot from the stories that people tell me, the good and the not so good.”
For Elissa, those moments of connection, listening, laughing, learning, are what volunteering is all about.
“It’s a deeper dimension to volunteering than me standing on the beach.”
From boardrooms to beaches, Dr Elissa Farrow’s journey shows that volunteering isn’t just about giving time, it’s about finding connection, community and joy. And for anyone standing on the edge of getting involved, her story is proof that even the smallest step can make a world of difference.
About Dr Elissa Farrow
Dr Elissa Farrow describes herself as a social scientist, a futurist, facilitator, keynote speaker and consultant. She is a volunteer surf lifeguard at Point Lookout Surf Life Saving Club on Minjerribah North Stradbroke Island and is also a member of the Surf Life Saving Australia ICT Governance Committee and Surf Life Saving Queensland Research Panel.