Last month he clocked up 35 years as an ambulance officer, then last Saturday he was made ‘firefighter of the year’ at the Arrowtown volunteer fire brigade’s annual honours award night.
Originally based in Dunedin, Perriman was St John’s Queenstown district ops manager from ’99 to 2002, then served as Queenstown area manager from 2012 till he started his linen business four years later.
He remains, however, a volunteer ambulance officer and heads up the Queenstown-based major incident support team for Central Otago.
Perriman also joined the Arrowtown fire brigade just over six years ago, where he’s now a senior firefighter, trains new recruits and also, naturally, assumes medical training and response roles.
Meantime, also at the brigade awards function, at Millbrook Resort, Tim Bolt won the attendance award for most call-outs and trainings.
And the newly-formed Arrowtown Volunteer Fire Brigade Trust dished out an outstanding and distinguished service award to chief fire officer Murray Forward and an all-round support and respect award to Kyle Borlase.
Perriman notes the brigade, which has 23 active firefighters, is getting close to 300 call-outs this calendar year — in an area stretching from Gibbston to Lower Shotover — which is not only a record but about 30% up on last year.
"We’re a strong brigade with a big commitment from people, and we couldn’t do it without the support of the Arrowtown community," he says.
