The testimonies from some of our volunteer teams’ experiences express the satisfaction of giving back to the community and testify to the valuable work Volunteering Auckland does in matching teams to projects:.
The Art of Living – Twin Streams Restoration
“Today a group of Art of Living volunteers went to McLaren Park to plant trees in the community. Even though the weather did not look too promising, there was a great turnout as people sacrificed about an hour and a half out of their day to give back to the community. This was part of the United Nations Millennium Goals Development Programme. It was a chance for everyone to meet and have a few laughs while doing something good for the community. 200 trees were planted and before we knew it, all the trees were in their new homes forever. Even though this may have seemed like a small feat, it all helps to make our planet a better place. This also helped us to become more aware of trees and plants in our communities and environments and to take more care as we pass through our day. We all had a sense of peace when we looked back at all the little trees in the ground.”
BNZ Volunteers at the Auckland Zoo
"One
Thursday nine volunteers from BNZ spent the day helping out at Auckland Zoo. BNZ employees can take two days paid volunteer leave in addition to annual and other leave. They are encouraged and supported to get involved in their local communities and charities. The volunteers started their day at 8am in the siamang enclosure at the Zoo for some weeding. As Jo Koller, Product Manager Transactional Banking said: “It was like gorillas in the mist… a very fine rain fell while we were weeding in the siamang enclosure, with the siamangs over in quarantine making their territorial calls... very cool!” They also met the famous Awani, who, according to the zookeeper, is about to be introduced to a girlfriend. The highlight of the trip for the group was the opportunity to enter the cottontop tamarinds’ enclosure while the five tamarinds were inside. The tamarinds watched from the comfort of the tree branches as the BNZ team worked on removing flaxes. All in all, the team had an amazing time and enjoyed being part of the great work going on at Auckland Zoo."
A Twist on Team Building - Telecom
Traditional team building activities have been given a new spin. This year Telecom’s Group Legal and Corporate Services team thought they’d try something different at their annual off-site event by trying their hand at volunteer work, and it seems to have been a hit.
More than thirty members of the team signed up to help the two local DOC rangers on Waiheke Island clean up the Whakanehwa Regional Park campsite. The crew were responsible for clearing away plant debris and rubbish, helping to reduce the risk of fire, provide more shade areas for campers and make way for winter planting.
“What we were able to achieve in the space of a few hours would have taken the rangers weeks to complete; they were thrilled to have us there,” says Angela Dutton, who organised the event. “On the face of it, cleaning up litter can sound like one of the less appealing types of volunteering, but it was at a gorgeous location and everyone really enjoyed it and felt satisfied by the end of it. It was a good alternative to traditional team building; we were able to give something back to the community, save money and still be able to do something together.”
Michele Bremser was one of the keen team members to get amongst it. “It was really fun to be out of the office and doing something different. It was amazing how much we were able to achieve while we were there, I’d be keen to do it again,” she says.
CanTeen Bandanna Challenge
NZ Lotteries Commission’s People and Support team gave their time recently to volunteer at the CanTeen packaging and 
distribution warehouse based in Onehunga. We are all familiar with the brilliant work, time and effort CanTeen do in their quest to support young people living with cancer.
CanTeen relies almost entirely on volunteer workers (like us), to get all the fundraising items sorted and packed ready for distribution. We went along initially to help out with packing bandannas but when we arrived they were still waiting for them to be delivered, so we joined a team of approximately 6 from ASB bank flattening out and boxing up their donation boxes. Our hands are testament to this, you would think that using a keyboard for the majority of the day would assist in keeping your fingers supple...just wait till you try folding boxes then packing and stacking the cartons. Those supple fingers become a battleground of little nicks here and there (who said paper cuts sting? Boy do those cardboard cuts burn!).
With Jo's humour and ideas on how the boxes could be folded (Origami anyone?) combined with Sheree's input and Talei's fabulous photography skills (no heads cut off this time), there were a few laughs shared.
The warehouse is huge and the amount of work that goes on in there, whether it be goods coming in or going out, makes you realise CanTeen need as much support as they can get to keep this worthy cause going.
