The club was accredited with level one under the Good Sport Program last Friday.

The Good Sport Program is a national initiative of the Australian Drug Foundation and was designed to help community sporting clubs change the attitudes of binge drinkers.

Hunter New England project manager Marc Glanville met with local club secretary Debbie Booth and licensee Toni Petterson to award them the accreditation.

“Hopefully most sporting clubs will become part of the program,” Mr Glanville said.

The culture of surf lifesaving promotes a healthy lifestyle and so it was unanimously agreed by the local committee to get involved with the program.

The club now has level one accreditation which it must stay on for the next 12 months before moving through level two and finally level three.

The accreditation was obtained after it was shown the club is doing the right thing when serving alcohol with all bar staff having the correct training and RSA certificates.

Regular meetings also bring staff up to date with new information about the responsible service of alcohol.

“Anyone from the licence board could walk in and see everything is under control,” licensee Toni Petterson said.

Good Sport Program banners will now be hung at the bar for the community to see the surf club is doing everything correctly.

“We wouldn’t be able to have achieved this without the support of the club and the work the volunteers do manning the bar,” Ms Petterson said.

The recognition comes as the Prime Minster Kevin Rudd steps up the campaign to cut binge drinking within sporting clubs by announcing a $53 million plan.

The plan was announced after the heads of AFL, rugby union, cricket and netball met with Mr Rudd, health minister Nicola Roxon and sports minister Kate Ellis.