Tūrangi Police: Volunteers help make community better for all

Sergeant Te Reipa Morunga, Tūrangi Police. Photo / File

Kia ora koutou. Our little community runs on volunteers. We have volunteers in our community patrols, in our fire brigade, in our Land Search and Rescue, our Coastguard, our Civil Defence and many other social service, youth, iwi and church organisations. They are what make our community so strong.

But we always need more people, and a diverse range of people too. There are all sorts of roles for young and old, for people with barely any time to give, to those who can commit to weekly training or responding to a pager.

So next Thursday, October 29 from 6pm to 8pm and again on Sunday, November 1 from 1pm to 3pm, a range of our local emergency and service organisations are running a Tūrangi Volunteer Expo at the Tūrangi Fire Station. Everyone is welcome.

Organisations who are actively looking for more volunteers will be showcasing what they do and how they do it, you'll get a chance to chat to volunteers about what's involved, the benefits to you and your community and what would fit best with your own interests and your life. There is of course no obligation to sign up to anything although all of the organisations involved would love some fresh faces.

In the time that I've been here in the community of Tūrangi I've noticed our services do so well because of the absolutely phenomenal volunteers that we have but we are always looking for more.

I'm also very aware of the community, usually through social media, wanting to do something positive to solve the issues we do have and make Tūrangi better. Through community patrols this is an avenue that you can help the police and community to be safer. We do this by training and giving you the resources to work alongside local police.

When the community takes ownership it makes a huge difference instead of things being just a so-called police problem. Keyboard warriors say "do this, do that". If they want to do something, come and help make our community stronger. We are only asking for four hours a month for community patrollers which includes training, and we run it on a roster so it can fit in with your lifestyle. Come and help us - we want a range of ages, genders and different types of people because our patrols need to represent our community.

Lastly, Labour Weekend is coming up which is always busy for our area. We have new speed restrictions on State Highway 1 between Tūrangi and Taupō and people need to abide by them. Plan your journey, don't be in a rush and be courteous. Our road teams will be out and about checking that people are driving safely. I've done the trip a couple of times already and driving at the new limits does not take much more time than it did before the speeds were lowered. so just relax and enjoy the scenery.

Kia pai tō wiki, Te Reipa.