Twenty years ago, John Harwood looked at the pile of woodchip leftover from woodchopping at the A and P Show and it kindled an idea to turn it into kindling every year.
So, 20 years later, at nearly 90, he is still at the showgrounds one morning a week for several months with a small team of fellow Lions Club Richmond volunteers, turning the leftover wood into kindling and drying it to either sell as a fundraiser, or give to families who need it to light their fire and stay warm.
It’s just one of the many volunteer roles he has had over the years, which is why he has a Queen Service Medal for services to the community, and he confesses that at one point he was involved in five different volunteer organisations at once.
He’s just one of thousands of people who volunteer in the region and have been celebrated during Volunteer Week and he has no plans to stop when he turns 90 in a couple of months. He remembers back to why he started the kindling project.
“I found these shavings down the back of the park and thought it would be left to rot, so why not bag it for kindling?”
He has been with the Lions club for 52 years – since he was 38 – and though he may be a bit older than some, fellow kindling volunteer Laurie Davidson points out the average age in the club is about 70.
“Getting younger people to participate in volunteering is getting harder and harder. All clubs have the same problem.”
Another kindling volunteer, Eric Whyte, says New Zealand relies on volunteers, and without them the Government will have to pick up the tab.
