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For Brian McIntyre, volunteering has never been about recognition. It’s simply been part of life. His involvement in the community stretches back nearly 50 years, beginning with a project many Nelson locals may still remember. “Probably my first involvement was helping build the first adventure playground in Nelson at Victory School in 1977,” Brian says. “It was a huge hit with the children.”
From there, his community work grew naturally alongside family life. Brian coached his sons’ soccer team for six years and later helped coach the 1980 Nelson representative side. But it was after retirement that he found one of the roles that meant the most to him, volunteering at Nelson’s old Green Gables rest home for 11 years. “It’s a toss-up between Green Gables and the work I do now with the NZ Remembrance Army as to what’s been the most satisfying,” he says. “The people there were just people like you and me. They were our history.”
That respect for the past led Brian to another significant project. In 2019 he started what he called the “A Team”, a group of volunteers restoring neglected headstones at Wakapuaka Cemetery. Over four years they refurbished around 3,600 graves. “The thank-you's from families meant a lot,” Brian says. “People told us we’d turned a spooky old cemetery into Nelson’s newest park.”
While working there, Brian noticed headstones marking young men lost in wars such as Gallipoli. Wanting to acknowledge them, he began making ceramic ANZAC-style poppies. With help from Nelson Community Potters and support from the New Zealand Remembrance Army, Brian has now created more than 18,000. The majority are placed on the civilian headstones of ex-military, while others have travelled with families to at least 13 countries. “All of these people we’re remembering were just ordinary people like us,” Brian says. “One day that could and will be me.”
