Railcar team at awards
Tararua well represented at national community awards in Queenstown
Pahiatua Railcar Society represented the Tararua District volunteer community last weekend at the Trustpower National Community Awards held in the Queenstown Lakes District.
Don Selby and Bernard Watson represented the group, with Mayor Tracey Collis. They took their community project head to head with the country’s best and brightest volunteer groups and projects on a national stage, full of friendly competition.
Pahiatua Railcar Society Inc. came out on top at the Trustpower Tararua District Community Awards last year, which earned them their spot at the Trustpower National Community Awards.
Trustpower Community and Communications Advisor Alice Boyd said though the Tararua District group did not come away as award recipients, their achievements shouldn’t be discounted.
“Pahiatua Railcar Society Inc. should be very proud of their presentation, which clearly demonstrated the commitment and passion of their volunteers,” said Ms Boyd.
“The Society is completely run by volunteers who give over 600 hours of their time each month to manage the club and carry out the projects, and we have no doubt they’ll continue going from strength to strength” she said.
The national competition brought together 25 groups from across 27 regions who were named Supreme Winners of last year’s Trustpower Community Awards, a programme run in partnership with local Councils.
The Awards were announced on Saturday evening at the awards dinner, held at the Kawarau Bungy.
Edgecumbe Volunteer Fire Brigade, representing Whakata¯ ne, was named Supreme Winner, and the South Invercargill Urban Rejuvenation Charitable Trust (South Alive), a group representing Invercargill City and Southland District, was named Runner-Up. The Whetu¯ Ma¯ taiata Award winner — the rising star award for an up-andcoming group — was Kura Precious Ones Special Needs Support Group from the Wairoa District.
In between a weekend of sight-seeing and networking, Don and Bernard gave an eightminute presentation on what the group has achieved. The groups were judged on their presentations, along with a 1000-word summary of the organisation, by their peers and a panel of independent judges, including Hadyn Jones from TVNZ’s Good Sorts and Fair Go programmes, Scott Miller, chief executive of Volunteering NZ, Henare O’Keefe, previous Kiwibank Hero of the Year, Janice Lee from Koha Kai, Ferg, a local Queenstown radio DJ from The Hits, Rosie Julou General Manager of Exult, Vince Hawksworth Trustpower chief executive and Jess Cartwright, reporter for TVNZ based in Central Otago.