This year, at the organisation’s second Volunteer Awards Night, Multicultural Tauranga piggy-backed on the theme that Volunteering New Zealand had prepared for National Volunteer Week: Thanks for making time. Present and past committee members, a few persons who had shown extraordinary commitment to the organisation as well as participants of the Nine Faces photo project were invited to an awards event on 23 June 2016. Iris Beemster, Volunteer Bay of Plenty Service Coordinator, gave a short speech in which she pointed out how important volunteers are and how they, too, benefit from giving their time and skills. Centre Co-ordinator Janet Smith emceed the event. She had prepared a few icebreaker games so that people would get to know each other a little bit - and find out some quirky or surprising details about them. |
Janet also announced the names of those volunteers who received certificates and little presents, and made sure everybody was having a good time. This included the Centre mascot, Reddie the whippet, who was awarded a pig’s ear for good behaviour and patience even when enduring long committee meetings.