Volunteering Waikato general manager, Heather Moore, said Cambridge is one of the most community-involved towns they work with.
Volunteering Waikato is marking 25 years of supporting the Waikato community this year, with more reason to celebrate as the past year has seen record numbers of volunteers.
Established in Hamilton in 1993, the organisation helps community groups find and enlist volunteers, as well as directing those who wished to do voluntary work to the right opportunity. Over the past 25 years it has worked with more than 35,000 volunteers around the region, and currently supports 340 community organisations.
Here in Cambridge, 18 community organisations are supported, including the local Scouts, Hospice, St John, Red Cross, Plunket, Salvation Army, Victim Support, New Lives Animal Rescue, Maungatautari Ecological Island, Karapiro Rowing, Riding for the Disabled and more.
In 2017 alone, Volunteering Waikato worked with 165 volunteers from Cambridge, who applied for 175 voluntary positions.
“Of all the towns that we work with, Cambridge would be one of the most community-involved towns,” said Heather Moore, Volunteering Waikato general manager. “Whether we are looking for volunteers for an event, or ongoing support roles in the community, we never have much problem finding volunteers in Cambridge.”
Volunteering Waikato has a range of roles available for Cambridge residents to get involved in local volunteer work, including customer service, retail, scouting, befriending, assisting with riding lessons, music group facilitator, and more.
“We have had some great roles (in Cambridge) in the past year, including cycling and rowing events, the Santa Parade, home tutors, health shuttle drivers, appeals like Daffodil Day, playground maintenance, photographer – in fact we had more than 50 different roles, and almost all of them were filled,” said Heather.
“We worked with 3,630 volunteers in our region last year,” she added. “That is the largest number of volunteers we have ever had in any one year.”
To find out more about the organisation, including how to get involved, visit www.volunteeringwaikato.org.nz or phone (07) 839 3191.
