Tūrangi emergency services reap the rewards from a thankful parent

Wai Johnson presents a hefty cheque to Tūrangi chief fire officer Tangonui Kingi. Also pictured, from left, is Ian Foggin and Kevin Quennell, and Patrick Barry from Century 21 Premier. Photo / Dan Hutchinson

When emergency services rescued two boys from the southern end of Lake Taupō in 2014, little did they know they had unleashed a fundraising firestorm.

Tūrangi realtor Wai Johnson - principal of Century 21 Premier - has now completed her fourth round of fundraising for local emergency services with a $10,000 donation to the Tūrangi Fire Brigade.

She has previously organised similar charity auction dinners as fundraising drives for St John Ambulance Youth, $15,000, and $6000 each for the Greenlea Rescue Helicopter and Coastguard Tūrangi.

It all started in 2014, when her, then 21-year-old son Joshua Johnson and his friend were out in the lake in a boat when it capsized.

They spent four hours in the water, on a very cold day at the end of May, and were saved in a massive joint effort between emergency services, with minutes to spare before they would have likely perished.

“They capsized so they were floundering around on the coldest day of the year in the lake. They were lucky they didn’t die. Four hours they were in there and they only just got there in time.”

Johnson said the auction at the Tūrangi Golf Club on April 18 defied expectations. They were expecting the dinner to be the main source of fundraising at $120 a head. The dinner was catered by Joshua and his partner through their company Toi Toi Food Co.

“We had an idea of maybe five or six grand but then the auction pushed it right up into the stratosphere.”

Tūrangi Fire Brigade chief fire officer Tangonui Kingi said they did get the occasional donation on a “smaller scale” but were more likely to be fundraising for other groups than receiving donations, so the team was “stoked”.

“The Sky Tower is a classic. We have got all our firefighters heading up to Auckland today to compete in that challenge [on May 20] and that is for the Leukaemia Foundation so generally you will find most brigades will fundraise for other purposes, other than themselves.”

“Years ago we did a fundraiser for a bit of kit that allows us to check hotspots. It was $7000 – that’s a few more than just an occasional sausage sizzle.

“We are very much mindful, that in this day and age, people are falling on hard times so we don’t tend to want to impose on the community too much so we will only go out when we really, really, really need something unless it comes in this way.”

The brigade is made up of 36 volunteers and many of the younger members helped during the dinner and auction at the Tūrangi Golf Club on April 18, while senior members stayed back to man the station.

Tangonui said they would sit down as a team and decide what to use the money on.