We had great fun at this years' Selwyn CultureFest! Joined by volunteer students from the Southern Cross Language Institute, we encouraged youngsters to decorate Care Bags for the local Cancer Society. What a fantastic opportunity to talk to young and old about volunteering and all it's benefits.
They say a meeting without food should have been an email… so luckily for us our AGM was followed by some delicious nibbles! Thank you to all who came along to our Annnual General Meeting to look back over the year that’s been and celebrate what we have achieved together. It is inspiring to see what a difference we can make when we all work together. We were also very excited to be joined by a team of students from New Zealand Broadcasting School who have been working on a video campaign for us, to mark our upcoming 35th Anniversary. Stay tuned for more on that to follow!
We were delighted to conclude our Knit for Purpose Micro-volunteering Project with The Big Handover! Thanks to the impressive work of many volunteers, we were able to gift 14 beautiful, handmade blankets to some very deserving community organisations, including Birthright Canterbury, The Nest Collective Christchurch and Age Concern Canterbury. These will be put to excellent use amongst the people and clients they support.
Thank you to all the many volunteers who contributed to the project - knitting, sewing, donating - you are all SUPER STARS!! Special mention to Mark Peters, City Councillor for Hornby Ward, who supported our project and presented the amazing volunteers with certificates of appreciation for all their knitting and sewing efforts.
Each year, our Student Volunteer Expo is run in partnership with the University of Canterbury and proves itself year after year as being something of interest and value both to the students and the organisations which take up the opportunity to attend. In 2023, we had 26 community organisations there to talk to students about getting involved on volunteer teams, and just over 300 students come through the expo!
What a fantastic afternoon of celebration we had today, honouring 27 individuals and 11 groups with Volunteer Recognition Awards! Our thanks goes to Mayor Phil Mauger, for being a part of this important occasion, and his valuable message of support.
Thank you to Guest Speaker, Rev Nicky Lee, Deacon at Christchurch Cathedral for her words of wisdom, and Youth Violinist, Georgia Daly, for entertaining us with her stunning performance. Thank you also to Tina Cooper, Creative Designer, for the beautiful Harakeke Clusters and photographer, Jim Huang, who stepped in last minute and saved the day!