Kathie Furlong: Unsung heroes an inspiration

Kathie Furlong

Recently I attended a morning tea in the Mayor's office to honour two stalwarts of Keep Napier Beautiful, Isobel Morgan and Selwyn Dyet.

For more than 20 years, Isobel has brought her love of the environment to the work of KNB around our city, be it picking up litter, clearing overgrown sites, planting, manning a recycling station or any other activity that enhances our environment. She is also a long-serving and much-honoured member of Forest and Bird and founder of Friends of the Ahuriri Estuary. Since the 1950s, when she was a foundation teacher at Onekawa School, she has not only talked the talk to countless school children, but she has also led by example in gumboots and gardening gloves at every possible opportunity.

For nearly as long, Selwyn Dyet has been a member of the Taradale Rotary Club's Friends of Planet Earth group who have developed the Dolbel Reserve into the beautiful asset to the city that we have today. Each week, a dedicated band has planted trees, created pathways and toiled tirelessly to enhance this lovely park. The late Ron Ward encouraged Selwyn to come along with other Rotarians to help with the Recycling Day at Anderson Park and so he became an integral part of Keep Napier Beautiful's projects around the city.

Also at the morning tea was Sandy Dunford, who talked about how Isobel had inspired her to start a group of young people dedicated to the care and beautification of Napier, thus ensuring the continuity of the work of Keep Napier Beautiful, even though these long-time stalwarts are hanging up their gardening gloves.

Last week, I helped select a small group of citizens who will be honoured with Citizens Civic Awards for their outstanding voluntary contribution over many years to organisations and interests in our city.

It is very humbling to read the citations provided by their nominees, attesting to the many hours of unpaid work they provide in support of their chosen interests and causes. Our city is so much richer for the contribution that they and many others make.

Sometimes community spirit takes a different form, such as the story I read last week about three new business leaders stepping up to help grow business in Hawkes Bay. They have joined the board of Business Hawkes Bay, already comprised of some of our top business operators who contribute many unpaid hours to share their knowledge and experience in the interests of the Hawkes Bay economy on top of their "day jobs".

Then, this week, I read about 10-year-old Chiara Stride's amazing fundraising effort. She is organising a disco for young people to raise money for Ronald McDonald and hopes that at least 100 people would attend and raise $100 to replace money stolen in a break-in earlier this year. Chiara also regularly visits retirement homes to read to the elderly and accompany them on coffee dates, and has a strong interest in caring for animals.

These examples of voluntary service by the youngest to the oldest members of our community are just the tip of the iceberg of the efforts being made by many unsung heroes around us. They also serve to remind us that, as some of our volunteers cut back their involvement, there is always the necessity for others to step up and fill the gaps to keep the wheel turning.

No matter how young, or how busy you are, there is still a niche for whatever time or skills you can contribute.

As Chiara says: "EVERYONE should volunteer at some stage of their life because it helps their community ... if YOU volunteer you could just make a difference in someone's life."

Amazing! Not many 10-year-olds are thinking or acting in such a selfless way. She is an inspiration to us all.

-Kathie Furlong is a former deputy mayor of Napier.

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The views expressed here are the writer's personal opinion, and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz