Aroha Island Charitable Trust Takes Supreme Award

Media Release, Strictly embargoed until Monday 19 October, 8:30pm

Aroha Island Charitable Trust Takes Out Supreme Award

The Aroha Island Charitable Trust has won the Supreme Award at the inaugural TrustPower Far North Community Awards.

The Awards were announced and presented tonight (Monday 19 October) at a function at the Kaikohe Mid Motor Inn.

For winning the Supreme Award, Aroha Island Charitable Trust received a framed certificate, a trophy and $1,500 prize money. Aroha Island Charitable Trust now has the opportunity to represent the district at the 2009 TrustPower National Community Awards, which are being held in the Nelson/Tasman districts in March 2010.

The Aroha Island Charitable Trust also won a six month subscription to Fundraising in New Zealand magazine, New Zealand's only monthly publication dedicated to all things fundraising.

In total, TrustPower has given away $5,500 to various community groups through tonight’s Awards.

TrustPower Community Relations Representative Teresa Partridge says the story behind the Aroha Island Charitable Trust is truly inspiring. After the Queen Elizabeth II Trust, who own the island decided to call for tenders to manage the island on a commercial basis, a community committee was formed to put in a tender to manage the Aroha Island on behalf of the community.

“The committee signed a five year lease with three five year rights of renewal in July this year after two years of negotiations, and Aroha Island is now legally under community management.

“Aroha Island Charitable Trust is dedicated to preserving the island for future generations. The island is run entirely by volunteers who have many jobs to maintain the island and give over 800 hours a month to ensure this happens. Volunteers run bush walks and nights walks to hear the kiwis, work with local schools and provide courses on the island,” says Mrs Partridge.

The competition for the TrustPower Far North Community Awards was tough with 65 groups nominated for the Awards.

Other winners at tonight’s TrustPower Far North Community Awards were:

Heritage and Environment

Winner: Hokianga Historical Society

Runner-Up: Whakaangi Landcare Trust

Commendation: Kerikeri Stone Store Weedbusters

Health and Well Being

Winner: Kaitaia Hospital Volunteers

Runner-Up: Rawene Budget Service

Commendation: St John Opportunity Shop, Kerikeri

Arts and Culture

Winner: The Centre at Kerikeri Limited

Sport and Leisure

Winner: Baysport Committee

Runner-Up: Bay of Islands Walkway Trust

Commendation: Taipa Sailing Club

Educational and Child/Youth Development

Winner: Doubtless Bay Scout & Guide Group

Runner-Up: NRCF Volunteer Librarians

Commendation: Bay of Islands Riding for the Disabled Group

Please find attached a full citation for all recipients.

The Awards are being presented at a function on Monday 19 October, at Kaikohe Mid Motor Inn, starting at 5:30 pm. Media are welcome to attend.

ENDS

TrustPower Far North Community Awards 2009

Category A
Heritage & Environment

Commendation: Kerikeri Stone Store Weed Busters

This small group of enthusiastic volunteers keep the stone store basin in Kerikeri maintained and clear of weeds. Every two weeks these seven volunteers meet to clean up the basin, plant trees and generally keep the basin in a good looking state.

In the last 12 months, the volunteers decided that they needed new, effective tools for their mission. The most obvious for them was a robust petrol driven scrub bar. The volunteers set about raising the $2,000 to purchase the scrub bar along with safety equipment. With hundreds of emails sent and flyers delivered, a major contribution was given by SPOKSSA’s, the Far North District Council and the NRC. By the end of 2008, they were able to make the purchase.

Using the scrub bar the volunteers have managed to cut down rickets of weeds and gorse and clear the area for further tree planting. Young native bushes and trees are now making excellent progress, which is very exciting for the volunteers.

Other successes from the group include a massive reduction in the number of tobacco wood and Taiwan Cherry trees are in the area, Wandering Jew and climbing asparagus have also been special targets.

The volunteers try to maintain the stone store basin to keep it attractive for all visitors. Although your work might be done behind the scenes, tonight we recognise and thank-you.

Category A
Heritage & Environment

Runner-Up: Whakaangi Landcare Trust
The main aim of these volunteers is to protect the biodiversity of Berghan Point for future generations. Berghan Point is the main landscape feature of Doubtless Bay and it’s scenic values are important for both locals and visitors.

By co-ordinating intensive and integrated pest and predator control in the 1600ha of Berghan point for the last five years these volunteers have managed to conserve the land for the many indigenous and threatened plants and animals in the area, such as the North Island Brown Kiwi. The work of the Trust has been identified as one of the main kiwi recovery projects in the Far North.

The Trust has developed education resources for children about kiwi, they visit local schools, have displays at events, host open days for other community conservation projects and have children visit the project. The volunteers give a lot of their time for education because they believe it is important that locals gain an understanding of the local ecology and how it is protected.

Amongst all of this work, the volunteers are also facilitating and delivering a kiwi aversion training programme for Far North dogs. Dogs are the biggest threat to adult kiwi and without effective dog control, kiwi populations will continue to decline. In the 10 months to date of the programme, 17 workshops have been held and around 350 dogs have been trained.

The Trust believes that it has achieved and learned lots about protecting indigenous biodiversity and feel they now have a responsibility to share some of that knowledge so others can follow suite. The Trust has developed a comprehensive website that not only contains information about Whaakangi but also about how the protection is carried out.

This Trust, which involves 12 volunteers, has achieved a lot in the five years it has been operating, it is a real asset to the community and with the 100 hours they put in every month you can see why!

Category A
Heritage & Environment

Winner: Hokianga Historical Society
The volunteers of the Hokianga Historical Society seek to gather whatever has been told, written and produced about Hokianga, the harbour and its People.

The main work of the historical society is to maintain a centre where documents, traditions, personal memories and objects from Hokianga’s past and present are stored. The volunteers open the centre every day from 9:30am-4:30pm, except Christmas day and it is visited by both locals and travelling public.

As well as manning the centre on a roster, volunteers also search through newspaper microfilms and old papers to find random items to add to their collections. All current magazines and local newspapers are regularly screened and clipped for filing. Some volunteers have the job of sorting, organising and indexing information to make it easily accessible to the public. This is a specialised job and volunteers have attended day courses for training.

The main mission for the volunteers is to help people find what they want. Volunteers need to be kept informed of new additions and where they have been put, so they can help visitors when they come into the centre, phone up or email.

As well as running the centre, the volunteer’s produce a bi-monthly newsletter for members and bi-monthly events or topical meetings which are open to all interested.

A photocopying service is available to the public and this plus the local publications and souvenirs on sale at the centre are the main source of income.

Underlying all the activities at the centre lately has been the concern over the building, which is positioned high on an eroding sand dune. The volunteers have been spending a lot of time fundraising and applying for funding to buy a new building.

The volunteers of the Hokianga Historical Society provide a continuing storeroom for families, organisations and clubs to store their past records safely and in a place available to all involved. A huge amount of dedication from these volunteers! Well Done!

Category B
Health & Well-Being

Commendation: St John Opportunity Shop, Kerikeri

With fifty full time volunteers and 14 on call, these volunteers turn over more than 650 hours of voluntary time every month to run the St John Opportunity shop in Kerikeri for over 30 years.

By selling donated goods from the community, the St John opportunity shop is able to raise significant funds for the Kerikeri ambulance station. The funds raised pay for the purchase of ambulances and the training of the personal at the station.

Volunteers sort, price, fix and present all the donated items for sale. The volunteers also cut up rags at a very cheap price for local industries. The shop is in such demand of rags that is has 86 clients waiting in line for the bags of rags.

This shop is a real community venture, without the support of the community donating items, the shop couldn’t continue, without the volunteers in the community who run the shop, the shop couldn’t continue and without the support of the community who buy the donated items, the shop couldn’t continue. Most importantly without the shop, the Kerikeri Ambulance service wouldn’t be able to run as efficiently as it does.

So congratulations on this well deserved award!

Category B
Health & Well-Being
Runner-Up: Rawene Budget Service

There may be only three volunteers of the Rawene Budget Service, but these three volunteers contribute and impact the community in a huge way. They work to relieve poverty and support struggling families in the community

The three volunteers collectively run a budgeting service for the community to develop budgeting skills through programmes and free advice from supportive and confidential services. They also run an emergency food-bank, emergency furniture and bedding bank and an op-shop.

In the last 12 months, they have also started a project to provide a community garden to supply fresh vegetables to the food-bank and the community. This project has seen community volunteers make raised garden beds wit the help of NorthTec Campus, and these volunteers also maintain the gardens.

The budgeting service op-shop operate one day a week by the three volunteers. The two volunteer budget advisers are fully trained and undertake additional professional development at least once a year.

These services have operated in Rawene for five years now and are the only budget service, op shop and food-bank operating in Rawene and the surrounding area.

The Service has become an informal drop-in centre, where the volunteers offer a cup of tea and a listening ear.

The benefits these services provide to the community are clear…they help their fellow community members when they need it most. For this, we thank-you!

Category B
Health & Well-Being

Winner: Kaitaia Hospital Volunteers

There are two elements to the Kaitaia Hospital volunteer’s role. The first of these is to meet and greet patients who arrive at the hospital, show them where they need to go and escort them in a wheelchair if need be. The volunteers assist in the Physiotherapy department when needed and help the admin staff with small tasks. The volunteers play an important role in the hospital by spending time with the patients especially those who may not get many visitors and deliver papers and flowers, magazines and children’s books. The volunteers ensure patients feel comfortable and safe while they are in the hospital.

The second element is the Hospital bus, which has a volunteer travelling to assist patients during the long journey from Kaitaia to Whangarei and home again. Volunteers keep the bus supplied with sick cartons, tissues, hand wash and blankets.

This is a small group of dedicated volunteers who give of their time freely to help others in their time of need. The Kaitaia hospital are very blessed to have these hard working volunteers, as it frees them up to do other, sometimes more important jobs.

Thank-you to these selfless volunteers!

Category C
Arts & Culture

WINNER: The Centre at Kerikeri Limited

The Centre at Kerikeri is a multi purpose centre with first class facilities. It is a centre that aims to be a hub for people to assemble, communicate, learn and entertain.

There have been over 100 events held at the centre in the last year, and this has required the use of 120 volunteers to help out in many ways. Events that have been held include performances, exhibitions and community events. For each event volunteers act as duty managers, ushers, bar and kitchen staff, technicians for lighting and sound, waitresses, cleaners and set-up crew.

Volunteers also help in the day-to-day running of the Centre by providing marketing for the Centre, doing box office sales, helping with repairs around the building and keeping the grounds in good order. Volunteers come from as far as Kaikohe and Russell to help out.

Hirers are often commenting on the great facilities of the centre, and the dedicated volunteers that run the operations.

Direct benefits to the community for a centre like this are the injection of money into the local economy from visitors, tourists and hirers. The ability to attract major professional groups such as the NZ Ballet and the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra and local schools also benefit, by having great facilities for performances, prize giving and science and technology fairs.

Without the volunteers and their input of over 850 hours a month this Centre simply could not run. Thank-you to all the committed volunteers who help provide the community with these fantastic facilities.

Category D
Sports and Leisure

Commendation: Taipa Sailing Club
Among other projects the Taipa Sailing Club has an annual learn to sail programme, beginning at the end of October each year. Volunteers run this programme by holding regular Saturday morning programmes for 12 young optimist sailors aged between 8 and 12 years old. These lessons continue until the end of May.

The club supplies the yachts for the programme and the club rooms are always maintained and tidy.

Volunteers are involved in helping instruct the optimist sailors in the many areas of sailing as well as rigging up the boats and teaching the students boat safety.

After the lessons on Saturday morning races are held. Volunteers take down the results and work the flags.

As well as this programme, volunteers of the Taipa Sailing Club offer Northland schools the NZ Yachting’s HAVE A GO SAILING Programme. This is a very successful programme for children who would not otherwise have a chance to learn the sport of sailing.

Thank-you to the eager volunteers of this club who pass on their knowledge to others.

Category D
Sports & Leisure

Runner-Up: Bay of Islands Walkway Trust
By constructing off road walking tracks in their local communities these volunteers are providing locals and visitors the opportunity to enjoy native flora and fauna in their region as well as hear and sometimes see kiwi and weka.

On completion, this walkway will link from Okaito to Russell and with Paihia to Opua to encourage walkers both local and visitors to walk full circle utilising the two ferry crossings of the Bay of Islands.

The volunteers are up to stage three of the walkway which is from Te Wahapu Road to Orongo Bay. The walkway was marked out by volunteers and construction commenced with cutting pathways and steps by hand. Two viewing areas have also been built along the walkway and seats have been installed.

The Walkway Trust work with Kiwi Foundation by installing bait in areas now made accessible by the track and volunteers fill these stations.

A website for the Trust has also been created with volunteer input which includes a downloadable route map and notes of interest both historical and flora and fauna that may be encountered along the walk.

Volunteers are also in charge of maintaining the tracks, and they regularly walk them to report any repairs needed. Working bees are then organised when required for jobs such as fallen trees, re-vegetation and fixing slips.

This walkway encourages all sections of the community to enjoy the local environment. Well done to the Trust and the volunteers who begun this project, a fantastic initiative!

Category D
Sports & Leisure

Winner: Baysport Committee
For the last 10 years, the Baysport committee have dedicated their skills, knowledge, finances and time to develop, build and maintain a sport Hub Facility situated on land at Harmony Lane.
The complex came about after a suggestion was made from SPARC who recommended the to encourage parents and supporters to get actively involved in volunteering for sport.

Members of the Baysport committee have put in thousands of hours of unpaid dedication to this development and extensive fundraising has been carried out.

On the site is a pavilion with an ablution block, which is home to the Kerikeri soccer club, stage one of the stadium has been built which houses inline skating and in the very near future the Judo Club. Last year the committee also installed a sprung sports floor in the stadium. Two basketball courts and four badminton courts have also been built on the site.

Fundraising has been ongoing to complete stage two and three of the stadium, in which the final stages are now under way. The committee have sought from local businesses gold, silver or bronze sponsorship. I can not even imagine the amount of money that has been raised to build facilities such as this!

Within the community, different people have volunteered their time such as a lawyer and registered electrician who have given of their services pro-bono. A local property developer, who has been overseeing each stage of the development, has also voluntarily put in hundreds of hours of time. All of the committee members have helped out in so many ways such as sourcing materials at cost and providing accountant work for no cost. The Waipapa Rotary has also helped out in many ways contributing drapes, carpeting and paying for and building a disability ramp.

Numbers of people benefitting from the complex is huge. Over 600 people use it for soccer, over 80 for inline skating, over 40 for badminton, over 80 for basketball and over 350 for tennis.

This project has been a real community effort, but special thanks go to the thousands of hours put in by the committee, who have been so committed and enthusiastic throughout the ten year process!

Category E
Educational & Child Youth Developement

Commendation: Bay of Islands Riding for the Disabled Group

The Bay of Islands Riding for the Disabled, also known as RDA is designed to help develop children with disabilities through therapeutic riding which enables them to integrate into society. The programme ran by RDA gives children confidence to overcome challenges, gain strength, as well as develop social and educational skills.

The therapeutic riding programme is run every week during the school term with the ongoing help of the 29 volunteers involved. Volunteers work a roster, and give around four hours a week each to help out with the programme. They also fundraise through garage sales and take care of safety.

The warmth and movement of the horse during the ride helps the children improve their muscle tone, strength, balance, co-ordination and self confidence.

These children are developing and getting effective learning outcomes - and RDA simply could not happen without this incredible team of volunteers. Well done!

Category E
Educational & Child Youth Developement

Runner-Up: NRCF Volunteer Librarians
Like many of the groups here tonight, these volunteers are a true example of people who humble themselves to help others.

These seven volunteers provide a library service program to Ngawha prisoners with the aim of assisting them towards rehabilitation. Books and magazines are ‘scrounged’ for by these volunteers from whatever source possible. In the past year Corrections has supplied 40 new books and the volunteers have added around 400 reasonably new books to the library.

Each new book takes the volunteers half an hour to process. They need to catalogue, dewey, label, barcode and cover each book.

The library is open for prisoners three times a week for about two hours and a prisoner assistant is usually with the volunteers.

All books are scanned and stamped as they leave the library, and upon return are scanned again and checked for damage. Volunteers shelve the books and mend any that need repairing.

Once a year the volunteers do a yearly stock take and this takes around four days to complete.

On average 60 prisoners visit the library each week. It is a credit to these lovely volunteers who give of their time to provide this service. A well deserved award – congratulations!

Category E
Education & Child Youth Development

WINNER: Doubtless Bay Scout & Guide Group
Here is a group of volunteers who work together to support local children and help them to develop into good citizens.

The aim of scouting is to encourage the physical, mental, social and spiritual development of young people. The volunteers achieve this by providing an enjoyable and attractive programme of progressive training, based on the scout law and promise.

All adult leaders are continuously up-skilling and attending scout leadership courses.

As well as their regular weekly scouting programme, the scouts have had many other opportunities in the community thanks to the dedication of the volunteers and parents. Doubtless Bay Scouts have helped out with the Combined Lions Clubs annual fishing competition, attended the Northland regatta and National Club Day, cleaned up rubbish in the Doubtless Bay area and helped with planting and care projects at Taumarumaru Reserve.

The volunteer leaders give up time to fundraise and fill out paperwork to help youth up-skill and attend National schools such as the National Flying School, National Caving School and National Scouts Conferences.

In October last year the volunteers took 21 youth on a trip to Mount Raupehu to experience snow conditions, develop a respect for the mountain, learn to ski and also made a visit to the Waiouru Military Museum.

Volunteers carry out many weekly jobs including lawn mowing, keeping the camping and boating gear serviced and maintained and producing regular news articles for the local paper.

By channelling the youth’s energy into productive character building life and survival skills the leaders are producing youth that are becoming good role models in the community. Congratulations!

TrustPower Far North Community Awards
Overall Winner

Aroha Island Charitable Trust

The story behind the Aroha Island Charitable Trust is truly inspiring. Listen to the story of how the Trust was developed and what they then went through to create it into a wonderful community sanctuary.

In 2006 the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust, who own the island, decided to rid itself of loss generating properties and announced its intention to manage the island on a commercial basis by calling for tenders.

The announcement created a great deal of concern within the Far North District and throughout New Zealand. The community were worried how kiwi and the island’s unique features were going to be preserved and whether road access would still be available to the public.

In February 2007, a committee was formed after a public meeting to discuss the future of the island. From the time the committee was formed, they only had two weeks to meet the tender deadline and submit a tender to manage the Aroha Island on behalf of the community. This they did and two years of negotiations followed. As a result, a five year lease with three five year rights of renewal were finally signed in July this year, and Aroha Island is now legally under community management. Aroha Island Charitable Trust is dedicated to preserving the island for future generations.

The Island is only a small island located in Rangitane and is a major habitat for the North Island Brown Kiwi.

Volunteers who run the island have many jobs to maintain the island and give over 800 hours a month to ensure this happens. Firstly the volunteers decided that the lodges on the island needed a good makeover and set about fixing them. Fixing rotting window sills, installing new carpet and curtains, painting, putting new furnishings in the rooms, water-blasting and repairing signs.

Volunteers have also implemented a weed and pest management programme and renewed the camping ground license. Volunteer caretakers have been appointed and a network of volunteers have been established to help around the island.

An outdoor education programme has also started with Riverview Primary School and the volunteers have developed some great resources to aid teaching kids more about our national icon, the kiwi.

A National Certificate in Horticulture, level 2 course started with NorthTec at which a community garden is being developed on the island.

Experienced volunteers also offer guided bushwalks to the public to see the flora and fauna and also provide night walks to hear and see Kiwi. Volunteers are also running day courses on the island such as learning to correctly identify certain plants, to understand the benefits and nutritional value and how to incorporate them into your diet.

Aroha Island is entirely managed and run by volunteers and the accommodation on the island for short stays helps to fund operational expenses.

Aroha Island is an active conservation site, and volunteers have placed bait stations and predator traps around the island.

The Aroha Island Charitable Trust and its band of many volunteers do a tremendous amount of work to maintain this island and preserve it for future generations. Thank-you for taking the initiative and dedication to fight for the island for this community – and the amount of hours that have ensued, you are truly deserving of tonight’s Supreme Award. We will be seeing you at the Nationals in Nelson and Tasman next year. Congratulations!