Paul Holmes: In giving we receive so much

(clockwise from front) Josephine Faiva, Martin Vaioleti, Kauala and Tevita Fifita were among members of the Harmoni Koula 'o Atalanga band. Photo / Janna Dixon

One of the special privileges I enjoy is that of being a trustee of the SkyCity Auckland Community Trust, which I was invited to join this year.

Some months back, the six of us sat around a table over several days and decided how to allocate just over $2 million to community groups that had applied for funding.

Each year, SkyCity transfers 2 per cent of its bottom line to the trust and that is the money we were asked to award. It is a lot of money, but such are the number of applications that many miss out, of course.

It was a humbling experience to go through the applications and to realise once again just how much open-hearted volunteering there is in the community, to see the wide variety of people with good hearts dedicated to helping other people.

The trustees are decent people with a fairly wide experience of life and we do our best to be generous and fair.

For a few days we feel as if we are playing God. You have always got to be careful of that feeling, but it really is a little like being Santa Claus.

Some groups ask for a lot, especially if they need building or renovation work done. Some ask for touchingly little, which will nevertheless make such a difference to the way they operate and help people.

There were a couple of dedicated young men who do great work in Warkworth with kids at risk on the street.

There was a marae in a remote area that wanted funding for a new sound and light system and to build a stage. Now it will get them. There was a church that needed a new roof. Now it will have it.

There were groups that help immigrants adjust to life here. They got grants. There were grants for Asian cultural groups and for local theatre and arts groups. More than 200 organisations benefited from the money we handed out.

Every year the Community Trust invites the successful applicants to a cocktail party at the SkyCity Conference Centre to both celebrate the success of their application and to celebrate the work these people do.

So on Thursday night, around 250 people turned up for a few drinks. We were entertained by Harmoni Koula 'o Atalanga, a Tongan brass band of young people.

The trust had given the band $20,000 to buy some new instruments. The band contains many kids whose families cannot afford to buy the instruments.

One little girl on a cornet wore black stockings, one of which had a hole below the knee. She was the bandleader's daughter.

The bandleader told one of my colleagues later that he could not believe the increase in the members' enthusiasm and self-esteem since they bought their new instruments.

They had asked to come and play in gratitude. When they finished, their band leader made a moving speech of thanks. I was proud to have been a part of a group that said yes to them.

Other groups to get funding were the Mt Richmond Special School, a low-decile school in a multicultural area for kids from 5 to 21 with intellectual disabilities, to enable them to attend Riding for the Disabled, $5000.

The Henderson Budget Service got $30,000. Look Good Feel Better, which helps women receiving treatment for cancer, got $5000. The House of Bethany, $3000.

The New Zealand Dance Festival, $30,000. The Kauri Coast Community Pool Trust, $50,000 towards a new 50m swimming pool. The People's Centres in Auckland, Manukau and Manurewa wanted funds for heart and lung equipment, obesity action, women's health and cancer detection.

They got a letter advising them that $72,000 was coming their way. It was wonderful to be part of it.

Several people I spoke to at the cocktail party remarked that they had not wanted to be greedy, when I suggested they might have applied for more.

That was also humbling, for these are the least greedy people in our communities. They were people so pleased to have been helped.

These people were some of our kindest, courageous and most unsung heroes.

AS FOR the hullabaloo over the free-to-air rights for the All Black pool games, the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final of the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the daring Maori Party raid to secure them - you tell me.

It was probably the toughest week for the Government so far. It was a week of to-ing and fro-ing, ups and downs and political aerobatics which John Key must several times have felt was getting out of control.

It started with the crafty Te Puni Kokiri millions for the Maori Television bid and the failure of Maori Affairs Minister Dr Pita Sharples to advise his senior National coalition partners.

The Government may have panicked at the audacity of the Maori channel and announced it would help what we might call the Pakeha channels, TVNZ and TV3, with a joint bid. The IRB must have been rubbing its hands with glee.

Finally, on Friday, Key u-turned. He had to. By the end of the week he saw the game was up. He could not have either Maori Television or his coalition partner humiliated. There would, therefore, be a joint bid led by Maori Television.

It was a politically tidy solution. Sharples declared it a victory for the Maori Party. It was. Probably Sharples had to have this one. "My expectation is there will be one bid on the table," he said. "It will be the Maori TV bid and it will be subbed out to the other channels." Subbed out. I like that.

But it was a tricky week which, the Prime Minister admitted, could have been handled better. But the point is, it was all back on track and feathers were smoothed by the end of the week.

You would have to hope.