Selfless service undertaken by hundreds in Nelson Tasman was saluted at Nelson Mayor Nick Smith’s Morning Tea for Volunteers which poured into the Trafalgar Park Pavilion on 17 June.
It was part of National Volunteer Week and this year’s theme encompassed weaving together the people who give their time, in many cases, for decades. From emergency services to multicultural, health, environmental and elderly support organisations, Volunteer Nelson manager Gordon Oldfield says acknowledging their contributions to the community was a cinch.
“It’s something that we wish we could do more often,” he says. “If you ask many volunteers, they will tell you that they get far more out of the volunteering than they believe they put into it.”
Jan has seven years’ worth of volunteerism under her belt which has included time at Kai Rescue, NCMA, Nelson Women’s Centre, Soroptomists Nelson and Save the Children NZ, and gushes over its benefits since retirement.
“It’s just so rewarding doing volunteering, it gets you out, and it’s physical, like at Kai Rescue you’re lugging cartons of vegetables and fruit,” she says. “It’s physically important as we get older, to be doing things like that.”
Fifteen-year-old Imogen Myer has juggled her studies with volunteering with Multicultural Youth Nelson Tasman for the past three years and says it has become family.
“I have made so many connections, not only with youth, but now with adults that have made such a big difference in Nelson as a whole,” she says. “It’s incredible for me at such a young age to have the opportunities that I’ve been given to be in so many important conversations to uplift multicultural youth in Nelson so that we all feel welcome and safe.”
