Hawke’s Bay golf tournament turning old furniture into new for Re-Source Charitable Trust

A set of drawers will act as a pin at a challenge at the Re-Source Charitable Trust gold day. 6 March 2026 NZME supplied

Hawke’s Bay golfers are swapping pins for pieces of furniture, all to raise money for charity.

Re-Source Charitable Trust is inviting Hawke’s Bay golfers to take part in its second annual charity golf tournament, raising funds to support local families while reducing waste across the region.

The charity tournament will be held at Hawke’s Bay Golf Club on Friday, March 27, and will feature an 18-hole Ambrose tournament, prizes, on-course challenges, an auction, live music from Mahina Lawrence and great food.

One of the challenges will involve players trying to chip balls into an old set of retired drawers before it heads off to be recycled by Re-Source and given to a family in need, with each ball hit into the drawer winning a prize.

The big-ticket items at auction include a signed shirt and hat from US Open-winning Kiwi golfer Michael Campbell and a round for two at the exclusive Cape Kidnappers Golf Course.

Funds raised through the event help sustain the work Re-Source carries out in the community.

The charity connects surplus goods destined for the landfill with people and other non-profits to ensure household items stay in use and out of the dump.

Working closely with a network of agencies and community organisations, Re-Source helps families access essential household items when they are facing hardship and supports other non-profits.

This supports people rebuilding their lives after events such as house fires, unsafe living situations, financial hardship, or other unexpected challenges.

Re-Source founder and general manager Nadine Gaunt said it can be difficult to understand the breadth of the charity’s service.

“We recover the items the community no longer needs and redirect them to where they’ll have the most impact,” she said.

Gaunt said an example of what Re-Source does is take hotel sheets that can no longer be used and would otherwise be sent to the landfill.

These sheets are then cleaned, sorted and graded by pupils of Kōwhai Specialist School, then repurposed as curtain lining at the Red Cross curtain bank in Napier and Wairoa.

Sheets and pillows are also sent to Hawke’s Bay Regional Prison, where they’re washed and dried before the “clean and beautiful white spotless pillows” are sent to frontline workers and other not-for-profits at no cost.

“We get 1200 pillows a year, and the community’s not paying for them,” Gaunt said.

“The sheets were waste, the pillows were waste, now Kōwhai [students] get work experience, the lads in the prison get experience and skills, and the community gets 1200 pillows.”

By rescuing and processing items that businesses and households no longer need, Re-Source can redistribute them to people who can use them, extending their life and significantly reducing waste.

Registrations and sponsorship options for the golf competition can be found at the Re-Source website.