Prize catch for Kāwhia Boating & Angling Club
Community heart of award-winning club
The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council recently presented the Kāwhia Boating & Angling Club with the 2022-23 Club of the Year award. The Kāwhia club took the prize over all New Zealand Sport Fishing Council-affiliated clubs.
“Thanks for the invitation to attend, it was great to be able to acknowledge all the hard work from Kāwhia Boating & Angling Club over the past year, tight lines and best of luck for the upcoming season!” New Zealand Sport Fishing Council CEO Mike Plant said in a Facebook post.
Club secretary Kim Tautari-Scott says they won the award because of their community spirit.
“It just means everything to us, we’re only a little club. It wasn’t only just for the fishing. If we can be a community-focused club, if that’s what it means for us to win this, then we’ve won. This award isn’t just for us, it’s for our community,” TautariScott says.
“About half of us are semi-new to the committee for the last two years.
Our predecessors had done such a fantastic job and that’s what we want
to do, just carry on their wonderful work.”
The committee is made up of people who live in Hamilton, Te Awamutu, Kāwhia, pārau and Te Kūiti — “we don’t all live there, but our heart and soul belongs there”.
In July last year, the community was heartbroken as the Kāwhia Sports Club went up in flames.
The sports club was a community centre doubling as the RSA, a wedding, birthday, event and a medical educational venue. These groups had nowhere to go.
The Kāwhia Boating & Angling Club has since given the use of its
facilities while the community waits for the sports club to reopen.
It’s all about backing their locals and working together with other Kāwhia agencies.
“We’ve also got this wonderful caterer, Dallas, who is a young local. She lives and breathes Kāwhia. For her being involved and starting her own business, it’s really neat to see. We want to help our community as much as we can,” Tautari-Scott says.
“We only want to make Kāwhia the best little town it can be.”
Tautari-Scott says after Covid, the club thought membership numbers would drop but it’s been the opposite.
“We’ve only grown, because people are looking for a club that all of the family can be involved in.”
This year, the club had 36 juniors competing in the youth nationalsŌ fishing competition. They were of course backed by their parents and the club members.
“We got third overall. It’s our upand-coming juniors that we want to keep this club going for. We’re only part of the legacy,” Tautari-Scott says.
“It’s a committee and community effort, it doesn’t take one person to make a great club. It’s about drawing on everybody’s expertise to continue growing our club.”