All dressed up and ready to go for the Bay of Islands Rotary Colour Fun Run. Photo / Supplied
All dressed up and ready to go for the Bay of Islands Rotary Colour Fun Run. Photo / Supplied
Rotary Fun Run set for Paihia
The Bay of Islands Rotary Club is organising and managing a Colour Fun Run for Saturday, October 22.
Participants are encouraged to come dressed in white and be splashed with a bright colour or two or three from the seven colour stations peppered alongthe beachfront.
About 400 participants are expected for the run, with 20 Rotary volunteers and 20 local business volunteers helping to colour those taking part.
The run starts at Horotutu (the green next to the Maritime Building), travels along the pathway to Paihia Beach to the turnaround point at the end of the beach by Bay Beach Hire. Then it's back through the colour stations turning at Waitangi Bridge and back to Horotutu to finish.
Every participant receives a pair of brightly coloured sunglasses, a headband, a colour powder pack and a wristband. Every finisher receives a colour run medal.
There are sponsored prizes along the way and some of those prizes will go to the best dressed on the run.
The club is hoping to raise about $15,000 and all proceeds go back into the community. Tickets are available on Evenfinda.
Henry Nissen received his 50-Year Service Medal from the Paihia Voluntary Fire Brigade. Photo / Supplied
50-Year Service Medal for Paihia firefighter
A distinguished service award has been commemorated at Paihia Volunteer Fire Brigade.
More than 100 people attended the afternoon community event and 120 invited guests attended the formal evening function, including Fire & Emergency New Zealand chief executive Kerry Gregory.
Volunteer Henry Nissen received his 50-Year Service Medal for voluntary service within the brigade.
He originally joined Paihia Volunteer Fire Brigade on February 16, 1971, six years after the community-led brigade began working from an improvised garage in central Paihia. He was elected station officer in 1983, followed by deputy chief fire officer in 1990, the same year that Paihia Volunteer Fire Brigade celebrated its 25th jubilee.
In 1992, Nissen became chief fire officer, the third CFO for Paihia Volunteer Fire Brigade, and held this crucial role within the brigade for 12 years. CFO Rex Wilson said Nissen had been a "fundamental backbone" throughout all the roles he has had within the brigade.
Nissen has also held volunteer roles as Northland Fire Brigades Sub-Association president (1999-2000), Auckland Provincial Fire Brigades Association president (2005-06), and Auckland Provincial Gold Star Association president (2015-16).
He continues with the Paihia brigade in his role as operational brigade support where he is a life honorary member.
The band Imperfect Offering are performing at the Turner Centre on October 15. Photo / Reuben Raj
Vocalist, promoter, event organiser and technical person is Clare Martin, who said they are focusing on Cohen's "beautiful and honest" songs of love that include his hits Hallelujah, Bird on the Wire and Suzanne.
In addition there is music from 1967 through to Cohen's last album, which was released just before his death aged 82 in 2016.
Clare Martin is also one of the backing singers. She said of her multi-tasking that it's how music can roll in New Zealand and that artists need to have multi-level skills to get their music heard.
Clare Martin, vocalist with the band Imperfect Offering, is also promoter, event organiser and technical person for the show. Photo / Supplied
Before coming to New Zealand she sang opera and classical music in the UK and then went into event management, getting small-scale operas into gardens around England and creating performances with an orchestra. Back in New Zealand, she joined up with Peter McMillan who is the band leader and lead vocalist for Imperfect Offering.
"We are all professional or semi-pro musicians and we work intensively to prepare for a tour like this," she said.
The band has a new violinist in Marika Balzat and a new lead guitarist, Dan Sperber. Martin said all band members come with a wealth of experience.
"We all love working together and love Leonard Cohen and I love the chance to sing music of such beauty and depth and that connection makes the evening a satisfying one for the audience too."
Rugby for Life trustees receiving the not-for-profit strategy award at TVNZ Marketing Awards in Auckland last week. Photo / Supplied
Rugby for Life wins marketing award
A Northland-based charity has won the Excellence in Not-for-Profit Marketing Strategy award at the TVNZ Marketing Awards held in Auckland last week.
It won the award for its Take 2 For The Team programme, which supported Tai Tokerau Northland achieving the national target of 90 per cent double vaccination rate against Covid-19 last year.
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Rugby for Life partnered with the region's Māori health providers and 60 rugby and sports clubs to generate more than 11,000 vaccinations. The Take 2 for The Team initiative was credited with helping Northland get close to its double vaccination target.
Rugby For Life was founded four years ago and a driving force behind it is Riki Kinnaird, co-owner of the Duke of Marlborough Hotel. He said they have 42 clubs (not just rugby clubs but sports clubs as well) on their books and have connected with 45,000 people from Wellsford northwards.
"We have strategic programmes for each club to solve the problem most clubs have, in that they don't have the skill set to achieve what they want. We solve the problem by taking administration time off the clubs' volunteers and use our network and resources to work through the issue."
The result is Tai Tokerau was the only region in New Zealand that grew its rugby. All other regions recorded a loss of participation in the game.
"We ask the club what they want to achieve in 100 years, it's a matter of survival and for each club it is different. We try to build a co-operative model so we can wallet share," Kinnaird said.
Funding comes from various sources. They had a gala dinner last year at The Duke that raised $250,000 and that money was given back to the clubs and the community. They built a tent city within Britomart for another gala dinner with chefs from all over Northland and Auckland.
It's also funded by individual donations, the Ministry for Social Development and Māori health providers.
He said in six months they will know whether the programmes they have instituted with individual clubs will be rolled out to the rest of the country.
