Adventure Wairoa saw Wairoa District well-represented in awards
Adventure Wairoa did the Wairoa District volunteer community proud at the Trustpower National Community Awards in Tauranga over the past weekend.
Russel McCracken and Leigh Aitken represented the group, with Wairoa Mayor Craig Little on hand to support the team over the weekend.
The Adventure Wairoa representatives 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.
Adventure Wairoa came out on top at the Trustpower Wairoa District Community Awards last year, which earnt them their spot at the Trustpower National Community Awards.
Trustpower Community and Communications Advisor, Ashleigh Cleaver, says while the Wairoa District group did not come away as award recipients, their achievements shouldn’t be forgotten or discounted.
"Adventure Wairoa, with the support of council and funding were able to open the first Mountain Bike park in Wairoa,” Cleaver says.
"The completed park boasts nearly 8km of professionally designed and built trails from grades 2 to 4, which cater for all levels of ability."
The national competition brought together 26 groups from across 27 regions - all who were named Supreme Winners of last year’s Trustpower Community Awards, a programme run in partnership with local Councils.
The award winners were announced on Saturday evening (30 March) at an Awards Dinner, held at Mills Reef Winery.
Matipo Community Development Charitable Trust, representing Whanganui, were named Supreme Winner, and South Catlins Charitable Trust, a group representing Invercargill Southland, was named Runner-Up.
The Whetū Mātaiata Award winner (the rising star award for an up-and-coming group), was Under the Stars from Tauranga, and the winner of the inaugural Trustpower Award was Uso Bike Ride from Wellington.
In between a weekend of sight-seeing and networking, the Adventure Wairoa volunteers gave an eight-minute presentation on what the group has achieved.
The groups were judged on their presentations, along with a 1,000 word summary of the organisation, by their peers and a panel of independent judges including Rhodes Scholar and 2017 runner-up in the NZ Youth Volunteer of the Year Awards, Johann Go, co-founder of Good Neighbour, Cam Hill, GM of Tauranga Women’s Refuge, Hazel Hape, previous National Supreme Winner, Bruce Knight from the Edgecumbe Volunteer Fire Brigade, Chief Executive of Volunteering NZ, Dr Katie Bruce, General Manager of Exult, Rosie Julou, Trustpower GM of Customer Operations, Fiona Smith, and Trustpower Independent Director, Richard Aitken.
