Volunteering is a great way of life
Step inside any primary school in New Zealand and you’ll find the colourful art done by students adorning the walls, letting whānau know they belong.
At Featherston School Te Kura o Paetūmokai there’s another colourful symbol on display, one that lets the children know there are special people on the staff who are available to look after their community during a crisis.
The school displays Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s proud employer mark. The distinctive stylised flame recognises the collaboration between the country’s nearly 12,000 volunteers and their employers, which helps keep New Zealanders and their property safe during emergencies.
Office administrator Tara Johnson is a volunteer for Fire and Emergency New Zealand. That means her work at the school can be interrupted at any stage of the day with a call to head out and fight a fire or assist at an accident.
The school is one of the organisations all around that country that was recognised in our Proud Employer campaign. Stuff partnered with Fire and Emergency to recognise the local businesses who support this important work by giving them the Proud Employer mark, which acknowledges the role they play in keeping communities safe.
Principal Gina Smith says the campaign saw a lot of support for Johnson on the local Facebook page, acknowledging the amazing contribution she makes to the community.
‘‘We display our mark on our window in the office so everyone who visits the school can see it.
‘‘All our whānau know about it and a few people have commented when they have seen it. I am very proud to support Tara and our other volunteers as they save lives in our local rural communities. Anything we do to raise awareness and help is nothing compared with what they do every day.’’
While communities rely on volunteers to be there during a crisis, the volunteers rely on the support of their employers to allow them to respond during working hours.
Johnson says she wouldn’t be able to volunteer for Fire and Emergency without a supportive employer. She’s grateful for the people who share the load when she needs to leave the school in a hurry.
The support from the school is indicative of how much the entire community values what the volunteers do.
‘‘It gives me a warm feeling inside knowing there are people out there thinking of us when the sirens go off and we have to rush off,’’ she says.
‘‘The thanks we get after doing a job is gratifying. At the end of the day, we are volunteers who want to help others.’’
❚ This article was commissioned in response to a commercial partnership. We have produced it independently, to the same standards applied to the rest of our journalism.