A GROUP hug to end all group hugs is planned in Masterton later this year when LifeLine Wairarapa celebrates its 20th anniversary. The voluntary counselling service is trying to contact everybody who has worked on the phones in those 20 years. "Our dream is to encircle a rugby field, or something likethat," say the organisers, long-time LifeLiners Tina Hadley-Jones and Kevin and Val Ball. Mrs Hadley-Jones and Mr Ball are both former directors and are the current training officers. Hundreds of people have undergone telephone counselling training in the 20 years since a Carterton clergyman, the Rev John Langley, ran a series of "Listening With Love" courses at St David's Church. The people from those courses established a LifeLine office in Carterton in November in 1986. Since then the oprganisation has maintained an uninterrupted, 24/7 crisis line. The service is now based in Masterton and no longer has a church affiliation. Staff turnover is high, for a number of reasons. The major ones include people moving on to formal training and work in the counselling field, and burnout after long periods of listening to other people's problems. "We are relaxed about people leaving," said Mrs Hadley-Jones. "They take their listening skills with them, and that's good for the community." LifeLine runs two training courses a year to keep the numbers up. The reunion planning group have been putting together a list of former counsellors and have so far come up with 130 names. But there must be at least another 70 out there, they say. They are asking anybody who has worked with LifeLine to register for the reunion, which will consist of a dinner and "the world's biggest group hug of former LifeLiners".
