Back to Blog

Te Puna Memorial Hall

The new Te Puna Memorial Hall officially opened in August 2020. The former Hall was built in 1922 in memory of the Te Puna men who died on active service, and those who served and returned from World War One and World War Two. In 2016, it had to be demolished to make way for the new Te Puna Road/SH2 roundabout. Four years later and the new building stands today, featuring a slightly larger footprint, with a larger kitchen, two meeting rooms, a supper room and archive room. Located close to where...

Brain Injured Children Trust Continues Therapy

No parent wants to watch their child struggle. But for those parents with children who have sustained a brain injury, struggles are an expected, and heart-breaking part of their everyday reality. The anguish, stress and guilt that comes with seeing your child unable to reach expected milestones, unable to walk, talk, or play, is something no parent wants to go through. But for 28 families in the Western Bay who experience this daily battle, a local charity is helping provide the practical, finan...

Bay Conservation Alliance

We are lucky in the Western Bay to be surrounded by beautiful beaches, lush native bush, and outlying islands, filled with flora and fauna for us to discover and enjoy. Many groups in the region work to ensure this natural environment is restored and conserved, preserving our taonga now and for generations to come. During lockdown, all on the ground conservation work had to stop. While this created some tension for community conservation groups who were worried that they couldn't attend to regu...

The Happy Puku Provide Nutritious Meals to Those in Need

The Happy Puku has delivered over 3400 meals to those in need since the lockdown started. From families in transitional housing to vulnerable individuals unsure where their next meal will come from, the nutritious kai has been a lifeline; not only keeping tummies full, but providing a much-needed gesture of connection.  Established two years ago, The Happy Puku aims to teach people who have experienced homelessness how to ‘grow a kai, catch a kai and cook a kai’, providing opportunities...

YSAR Adapt Post-lockdown with Online Learning

A new online learning system currently in development will allow YSAR to remain resilient in a post-Level 4 lockdown world filled with uncertainties. The non-profit organisation aims to enable young people to develop the skills necessary to participate and become active volunteers in emergency response organisations. Their three-year training programme consists of outdoor education, search, rescue and emergency response methodologies, and leadership and incident management. YSAR Co-founder and ...

Lex Spencer Wins Lifetime Service Award in TECT Community Awards

Lex Spencer has been announced as the winner of the Lifetime Service Award in the TECT Community Awards. A lifelong volunteer for over 60 years, with 7 of those in Tauranga, Lex freely shares his time and knowledge of cycling with the community. Fixing bikes for Waipuna Hospice, Travel Safe, Salvation Army and others across the community at no cost, has earned him the monikers ‘Mr Fix It’ and the ‘crazy bike guy’. Lex first got into fixing bikes for students in the Kids Can Ride Cycle p...

Bryce Dinneen Wins Volunteer of the Year in TECT Community Awards

Bryce Dinneen has been announced as Volunteer of the Year in the TECT Community Awards for his work creating opportunities for disabled and disadvantaged people. The former Tauranga Boys College student is well known in the region as an inspirational mentor and voice for disabled people to live a purposeful and fulfilled life. After suffering a high-level spinal injury from a shallow diving accident at the age of 29, Bryce was left with only 4% function. During his rehabilitation, Bryce though...

Live for More

For Jared Dixon, life felt like it was on a set path headed for prison. With many of his whānau in and out of prison, as a young child he wanted to experience life behind bars for a day, just to see what it was like. An upbringing surrounded by drugs, alcohol, gangs and violence soon led him to smoking weed every day from the age of 12. “A few years later, I tried meth for the first time, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. As soon as I took meth, I turned into a different perso...

James Power Wins Youth Spirit Award

James Power has been announced as the winner of the Youth Spirit Award in the TECT Community Awards. The 18-year-old from Whakamarama moved to Christchurch this year to study Engineering at the University of Canterbury, but left his mark here in Tauranga. With his countless volunteering hours, academic achievements, and sporting accomplishments, James was recognised by the judges for embodying community spirit through his contribution to the region. A volunteer lifeguard at Omanu Surf Life Savi...

Vital insights from ‘Vital Update – Tauranga’

The findings from ‘Vital Update – Tauranga’ – a community research project that measures the wellbeing of communities – is now available at www.vitalupdate.org.nz, providing city-wide data that is useful to our whole community. The research findings identify significant trends in a range of areas related to quality of life, and capture the aspirations of the people that live, learn, work and play in Tauranga. Tauranga Mayor Tenby Powell says the research has provided fundamental i...

ICONZ Edge Programme Transforms Learning for Boys

There's eager faces, excitable chatter, and energetic spirits. It's the 2 hours each week these children look forward to most – time out of the classroom using their hands to make something that is uniquely their own creation. But this isn't a normal school lesson. This is the ICONZ Edge programme, run by The Boys Brigade in three schools around the Western Bay. The programme uses hands-on activities, primarily woodworking, to engage boys who are on the edge and struggling in school; helping s...

RRR - Rescue, Revive Rehome Win Rising Star Award

RRR - Rescue, Revive, Rehome has been announced as the winner in the Rising Star category of the TECT Community Awards. The charity, founded by Rowan Elliott and Siobhan Mikaere, has been finding loving homes for animals through rescue, foster care, veterinary services, adoption, and education since 2019, and has helped over 1800 animals since then. From kittens and horses, to turtles and sheep, no animal is turned away. “These animals don’t have a voice, so we are that voice for them. We ar...

$226,500 in COVID-19 Recovery Funding for Community Groups

The WBOP COVID-19 Recovery Fund has paid out its first round of grants, totalling $226,530 to nine community groups. The successful recipients include Brain Injured Children Trust, Tauranga Community Foodbank, House of Science Tauranga, Complex Chronic Illness Support, AIMS Games Trust, Te Tuinga Whanau Support Services, St Peters Care & Counselling, Alzheimer's Society Tauranga and Graeme Dingle Foundation Bay of Plenty. The Recovery Fund aims to support key Western Bay NFPs and NGOs to surviv...

The Search Party Charitable Trust Win Diversity and Inclusion Award

The winner of the Diversity and Inclusion category in the TECT Community Awards has been announced as The Search Party Charitable Trust. The Te Puke-based charity works to bring communities together to socialise, educate, collaborate, and maintain properties and gardens. The hub that feeds the operations of the charity is the Daily café. Run with a not-for-profit ethos, it is a community asset that not only produces delicious food and coffee, but does so to fund the many community initiatives ...

Plunket

They say it takes a village to raise a child.  One key member in that village for many Kiwi families is Plunket. While it can be an overwhelming, sleep deprived experience having a baby, Plunket is there every step of the way; providing free support services for the development, health and wellbeing of children under five years old and their whānau . The charity works hard to achieve healthy tamariki, confident whānau, and connected communities through their services. Whether its home vi...

Dress for Success

Victoria came from an ordinary family, with an ordinary upbringing. However, during her late teenage years, things changed. She fell into drugs and became a person that was not nice to be around. Her family disowned her, wrote her out of their lives, out of their home and out of their will. Broken, her behaviour while on drugs led to a conviction. Victoria knew she needed to turn her life around. After going through Drug Rehabilitation, Victoria moved from Christchurch to Tauranga to start anew...

Adastra Scholarships Support Young Athletes and Musicians

The Adastra Foundation, which assists extraordinary young New Zealanders on the national and international stage by providing financial and mentoring support, held a function last night with local supporter TECT at the Adams Centre. Guest Speaker Olympic Gold medallist rower Eric Murray spoke about goal setting, overcoming adversity, re-setting plans after disruption, and his top tips for being successful. In attendance were many of the 19 local athletes, musicians and arts performers supported ...

Good Neighbour Proud to Win Sustainable Future Award

Good Neighbour has been announced as the winner in the Sustainable Future category in the TECT Community Awards. The charity is well known in the region for their work. Whether distributing rescued food to local community groups, delivering firewood to those in need, carrying out backyard projects and building maintenance, or cultivating community gardens for people to grow their own food, they work to support those facing some of life’s toughest times with a friendly neighbourly hand.  B...

STEMFest Wins Event Excellence in TECT Community Awards

Tauranga STEM Festival (STEMFest) was announced as the winner of the Event Excellence Award in the TECT Community Awards last week. The first event of its kind to be held in New Zealand, STEMFest attracted 3,500 visitors who had the chance to explore over 40 exhibits. From extracting DNA to learning how to code, children and adults alike enjoyed a full day of exciting experiments and hands-on learning. STEMFest founder and project lead Tia Lush says the team are honoured to win the award. "We ar...

The Search Party Charitable Trust Feed Those in Need in Te Puke

The Search Party Charitable Trust (TSPCT) may not be a name familiar to most. But the organisation has been at the heart of Te Puke for seven years, keeping the community connected, fed, and educated through their many initiatives. From free pizza nights and weekly cooking classes teaching families how to make food go further, to a collaborative project supporting homeless clients by keeping them practically busy with backyard tidy-ups for those in need, TSPCT doesn’t fit the usual box of an o...

TECT Community Awards Launch Online Next Week

The TECT Community Awards are launching online next week. While the original March event was postponed due to the lockdown, the move to an online format will see finalists and winners announced over six weeks on the TECT Facebook and website, starting Monday 22nd June. TECT General Manager Wayne Werder says the move to an online format this year would allow the incredible work of community groups and volunteers to be shared with the broader community, in a new, innovative way. “The lockdown h...

Katikati Community Centre Collaborates to Meet Needs

Responding to the community’s needs in a time of crisis is no small effort for any organisation or business. But for the Katikati Community Centre, which services over 4,000 people in Katikati, a new collaborative approach has brought power in numbers, helping them support their community and its changing needs. Katikati Community Centre Manager Allan Wainwright established the Katikati Community Response Group alongside other local community organisations to support those most vulnerable thro...

Ngā Kākano Meet Unprecedented Demand at Level 2

Healthcare provider Ngā Kākano Foundation says their work has tripled since the move to Alert Level 2 as they address the backlog built up during lockdown. With unprecedented demand for flu vaccinations, prescription requests, and regular, accessible health information, the group has recognised they are unlikely to return to a pre-Covid-19 normal. Ngā Kākano Foundation Group Chief Executive Pia Callaghan says they are seeing several changes in the health needs of their community. “As more ...

Phase Two of COVID-19 Funding Now Available to Support Recovery

Local funders TECT, Acorn Foundation, BayTrust and Tauranga City Council have announced a transition to phase two of their COVID-19 funding support, with an aim to help key Western Bay of Plenty community groups survive the medium-term impact of Covid-19. While the initial Rapid Response Fund launched by the funders in April provided emergency support, this new WBOP COVID-19 Recovery Fund will aid the recovery phase; enabling the longer-term rebuild of the community sector. The fund is part two ...

Confirmed Candidates Announced for TECT Trustee Election

Nominations for the 2020 TECT trustee election closed at 12 noon, Friday 29 May. Independent Returning Officer, Warwick Lampp, says that this year there has again been strong interest in the election with 13 candidates nominated for the three positions available on the Trust. This compares to 19 in 2018, 11 candidates in 2016, and 19 candidates in 2014.  The confirmed candidates for the 2020 election are:BRIDGES NatalieCHAMBERLAIN RonFARMER PeterGEMMING RachaelHOLLAND BillKING PhilKLETCHKO ...