May 19, 2025

Young volunteer Jules Delaere is finding there’s a joy in volunteering to help others.

She’s just completed her first volunteer sessions, first with Ōtanewainuku Kiwi Trust clearing trails, and then with COLAB in Te Puke’s Kai Resilience movement, supervising activities on last month’s Kids’ Kai Trail.

The 17-year-old Te Puke High School student says her job was simple - helping hand out goody bags, helping at a few stations, walking the children to the local early learning cantre and helping them make “flower bombs” of seeds to plant out at home.

“I saw an ad for volunteers to help out with the Kids’ Kai Trail last month and thought that’s a bit of me, that sounds cool.”

She’d already had a taste of volunteering at Pukehina, helping with veges grown for The Daily cafe to use in their school lunches and family meals.

“It’s my first year volunteering, and it’s pretty cool.” Jules is part way through her Duke of Edinburgh Silver award and started volunteering to add to her service hours.

“There’s a real joy in being involved in my community.” Her final year of school keeps her pretty busy, but she’s also enjoyed working with the kiwi trust helping clear the trails. Next year she hopes to study chemical engineering at university - and still volunteer.

For COLAB coordinator Christ Johnstone, managing young volunteers has been a new experience.

“We appreciate the energy and enthusiasm they contribute.” COLAB is a collective of individuals and groups working together to create a thriving, sustainable community in Te Puke.

The Kids’ Kai Trail was designed as an educational opportunity for tamariki, as part of the Flavours of Plenty festival. The children were able to take part in a variety of free activities, learning about how food is grown, planting seeds, and finishing with making their own pizza toppings at The Daily.

“We had a fantastic day, and this was a wonderful opportunity for COLAB to offer free activities for children to learn about food and growing. About 60 people took part and we had half a dozen young people volunteering.

“Young people bring a different energy to an event. They can relate to the kids and they don’t have that ‘parent’ approach. The kids really appreciate that. The volunteers also had a ball on the day.”

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