A Kids’ Club set-up by local mums to provide local children with extra-curricular opportunities has been selected as the winner of the 2021 Rabobank Good Deeds competition.
The Douglas Kids’ Club from the small rural community of Douglas in Eastern Taranaki was announced as the Good Deeds competition winner in early September and has been awarded $5000 to help fund the tidy up of the local hall used for Kids’ Club activities. A labour day to undertake work on the hall is currently being planned for later in the year and will be attended by several local Rabobank staff as well as team members from The Country radio show.
The Kids’ Club is currently attended by 24 local kids between the ages of two and 12 and gives them an opportunity to get involved in a range of activities they’d usually have to travel a considerable distance to take part in.
The activities are rotated each term with classes taught by an ‘expert’ Mum or Dad from the local community. Kids involved in the club are being taught wrestling skills this term with gymnastics planned for term four and wood chopping and athletics lined up for 2022.
Now in its fifth year, the 2021 edition of the Rabobank Good Deeds competition once again attracted a significant number of entries from rural community projects located right across New Zealand.
While there were many great entries from fantastic community projects, Rabobank CEO Todd Charteris said the Douglas Kids’ Club stood out as the top entrant.
““We really liked the fact that Mums and Dads in the local community are putting their hand up to run classes with the kids and that the club is creating lots of great opportunities for bonding between parents and their children,” he said.
“The initiative has also played a big role in getting Mums and Dads off farm and interacting with others, and we know this can be really important to help reduce stress and improve wellbeing.”
“The club has done a great job of bringing the whole community together and our local team in the Taranaki is really looking forward to helping out with the tidy up of the hall later in the year.”
Competition runners-up
In addition to the major prize winner, two runner up prizes of $1000 and day’s labour support from the local Rabobank tem were awarded. The runner up prizes went to Makihihi School in South Canterbury and Wendonside Community Hall in Southland.
Makihihi School
Makikihi School is a small rural community school with two classes and 33 student located in South Otago. Local Parents have recently built a bike track for the children and donated bikes and helmets are made available for everyone in the community to use. The school grounds and pool are also regularly used by the local community.
The $1000 and labour support will go towards completing the planting of native plants, adding ramps and jumps to the community led bike track, and to renew the deteriorated condition of the basketball and netball hoops in the hard court area of the school playground.
Wendonside Community Hall
The Wendonside Community Hall in Northern Southland is the last standing landmark in the locality that links the area’s history and the farming community. The Wendonside hall is well over 100 years old and is the hub for our local community catchment group that has a strong presence in Wendonside. The catchment group is the main user of the hall for meetings, field days and other wider community get togethers.
The funding will be used towards the direct costs of materials and paint required to complete the project. The labour component of the prize package will be put to work on paint brushes during a community working bee at the hall.