2017 Annual Awards - Volunteer of the Year Awards Part 4

We continue to take a look at our finalists for the Volunteer of the Year Awards in preparation for the 2017 Annual Awards that will take place on 25th November, 6.30pm at JetPark in Auckland.

The District Winners for the Volunteer of the Year Awards are as follow:

Northland - Gary Traill

Auckland - Gabe Marsters

Waikato - Awards Night Not Happened

Bay of Plenty - Doug Taylor

Wellington - Kent Hawkins

Canterbury - Nic Dann

Midlands - Vicki Rae

Southland - Andrea Dudley

Winners from each of the 11 regional District Associations are put forward as contenders for the coveted National Award. When deciding the judging panel considers the following:

Engagement - ability to inspire goodwill and develop others

Commitment - evidence of contributing time and dedicated service

Impact - signs of influence on the community to achieve results

Our last finalist is Vicki Rae. Vicki is a member of the Timaru Squash Club where she has been volunteering for at least the last 9 years from helping in the kitchen, running tournaments, TC, being Club Captain, treasurer and now president. Her bubbly can-do attitude has encouraged new members to join and old members to get involved. What has made her stand out this year is not only has Vicki been heavily involved with the club, but her focus this year was getting juniors more active in the club running training sessions for young ones. This tireless drive to get parents on board plus taking juniors around the country in the development squad is amazing, growing the game of squash.

Vicki has also taken on the role in the Squash Midlands district as junior/coaching convenor as the season picked up momentum. Firstly, Vicki has had to communicate with each and every new affiliated club (10) and try to get the person who would be in charge of their club juniors, so that she had direct contact with all clubs and they understood what Squash Midlands was offering in this area, which of course the 10 new clubs had no idea.

Vicki organised 5 Junior camps and 4 one day tournaments which was her initiative so that juniors could meet and play together while their parents could be informed of the opportunities for juniors in the 2017 season. This also helped with identifying junior talent & forming the process to develop squads, which then lead to representative coach training and the ultimate of representing the Squash Midlands district.

The District agreed to pay for Christchurch based professional coach Mike Allred to travel to the district for the 2017 season. Vicki took on the role of coaching convenor and made all arrangements on behalf of the district where Mike travelled 9 times, visited 15 clubs and 300 players have had the opportunity to be coached by him.

She also put into place the process for Aaron Bungard to be the HP district coach. She has managed squads for Aaron and liaised with parents at all times. This meant that the district has had representation at this years’ National Juniors Championship.

Vicki has also identified and bought to the district notice the coaching of Gary Prentice who is now supporting Aaron by coaching our athletes in the clubs.

District junior/coaching convenor’s volunteer roll has taken approximately 80 hours per month for the 2017 season. Vicki has also taken on the lead role of coordinating and liaising with the other 3 South Island districts on the Squash NZ calendar to create a more seamless activity programme.

Congratulations to Vicki on being a finalist for the Volunteer of the Year Award.