Long-Time Volunteer Honoured For Raising Millions For Special Olympics

Laurinne Laing has taken the phrase volunteer to a whole new level.

Laing has been the driving force behind the Special Olympics Howick-Pakuranga club and the Upper North Island Trust and in the process has fundraised millions of dollars for athletes with an intellectual disability.

This week is National Volunteer Week and like many others Laing just wanted to lend a helping hand, but ended up putting her heart and soul into Special Olympics for over 35 years, often dedicating more than 30 hours a week to the organisation.

Earlier this month, Laing was recognised in the King’s Birthday honours for her incredible contribution to Special Olympics.

“I got involved through my brother Glen who has an intellectual disability and we wanted to encourage him to get him involved in sport, and I also wanted to take a bit of a load off my mother,” says Laing.

She remembers how Glen was one of the Special Olympics pioneers and competed at the first National Summer Games in Hutt Valley in 1989.

“Glen competed in every National Summer Games until 2009 in Palmerston North,” says Laing, who joined the committee and also put her hand up to coach the ten-pin bowling team.

“And I had never played the sport,” laughs Laing, who acted as club secretary for a decade before she agreed to be acting chairperson for a few months in 2007, only to find herself in the role for the next 18 years.

Since then, Laing has helped prepare the Howick-Pakuranga team for each National Summer Games and regularly acted as Head of Delegation.

The former school teacher and director of a software development company turned out to have a special talent for finding money with funding agencies, gaming trusts and corporate sponsors to get teams to the National Summer Games, send a regional team to the annual Snow Camp in Wanaka and for the other regional costs of the 13 clubs in the Upper North Island Trust.

“The snow camp alone would cost us about $50-60,000 each year, and closer to $80,000 in a National Winter Games year, and this year we need to raise $87,000 to get athletes to the National Summer Games,” says Laing.

She is reluctant to guess how much money she and her colleagues raised over the past 35 years, but a quick calculation produces some staggering numbers that run well into seven figures.

“I never looked at it like that, but yes, it does start adding up when you look back over the years,” says Laing.

She explains that the key to good fundraising is building relationships with the funding agencies, with local councils and sponsors, like Freemasons New Zealand so they keep supporting the athletes.

“But there is a lot of paperwork involved, and you need to make sure you apply for the right items, with the right agencies and for the right amount. And of course then there is a lot of audit work afterwards reconciling where the money was spent, so you have to be organised.

“After a while you know what they want to see and they know that they can trust you with their money, so it’s all about cultivating those relationships.”

This week is National Volunteer Week and Laing encourages more people to put their hands up to give their time to help others, and not waste the opportunity to help out at the National Summer Games in Christchurch on December 10-14 which will need 700 volunteers to run the event.

“Give it a go. It's not everybody's cup of tea, but more often than not it's just such a wonderful rewarding thing to do. You can make such an impact on people's lives and give them the chance to feel good, and do what their brothers and sisters can do at sports,” says Laing who adds that volunteers help athletes gain a sense of well-being and confidence to be out in the community and interact with other people.

Laing says that she retired almost 20 years ago, so had the space in her week to dedicate so much time to Special Olympics, but is slowly looking to step back.

“Maybe I’m a bit of a control freak, but I find it hard to hand over jobs when I know those people are all busy and have full-time jobs. It’s not always easy for me after putting blood, sweat and tears into these jobs for so many years, but it’s time to hand over the reins.”

Laing says the National Summer Games in Christchurch will be the first event in decades where she will not be Head of Delegation.

“The person who is taking over is really excellent and she will do really well. I will be in Christchurch, floating around the team, but only as a fan.”

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