Coastguard Marlborough
Unit Finalist
Coastguard Marlborough’s well-deserved finalist spot highlights their impactful initiatives over the past year – particularly their successful expansion trial into Pelorus Sound. This enabled boaties in Pelorus Sound to call Coastguard for non-urgent assistance, saving a four-hour round trip from Picton.
The trial exceeded expectations, enabling the team to respond swiftly to numerous emergencies and demonstrating the tangible benefits of localised search and rescue capabilities. This ground-breaking endeavour and the resulting community engagement has significantly enhanced operational readiness, strengthened community connections, and fostered partnerships with local agencies and groups.
Coastguard Marlborough plays a pivotal role in Picton, providing vital support at local community and sailing events, as well as raising funds through local partnerships. The team doubled their ticket sales in the Summer Lottery this year and participated in the Youth in Emergency Services (YES) programme, resulting in a number of young volunteers getting involved with the unit.
Coastguard North Kaipara
Unit Finalist
Coastguard North Kaipara is ‘the little unit that can’. With a small team of dedicated rescue vessel and shore crew volunteers, this team pulls out all the stops to engage with their local communities to raise awareness, recruit new members and raise funds.
In recent years, they’ve transformed into a dedicated, reliable and capable "wet" unit, initially with the use of Manaia Rescue and more recently with Tinopai Rescue, one of the 22 high-spec AC36 craft that were first used as chase boats at the 2021 America's Cup. Despite limited businesses in the area, the team has built relationships with several benefactors to support the purchase and maintenance of assets.
Given the remote location, recruiting new volunteers is always challenging, yet this small team goes above and beyond in their local communities. Over the past year, they’ve dedicated over 560 hours to fundraising and PR/education – an average of over 40 hours per volunteer! This is testament to their tireless dedication to providing a vital service to their small community.
Coastguard Ōpōtiki
Unit Finalist
Coastguard Ōpōtiki is an exceptional example of a unit that’s super connected with its community and punches well above its weight.
Among their many achievements this year was a Show & Shine event in February which raised funds by showcasing local cars, trucks and vessels. The event attracted a huge crowd including car clubs from surrounding regions, backed by local radio coverage, food stands, branded products, raffles and prizes. Likewise, the unit went above and beyond when Old4New arrived in town, with a full-on water safety day, complete with helicopter, BBQ, a full volunteer team and hundreds of attendees.
Another example was around the extremely engaging and informative local bar awareness seminar, which also had a massive turnout (more than double those who had registered) and very positive feedback from participants. In short, this is a team that has truly “raised the bar” when it comes to fundraising and community engagement.