Ngā mihi nui: thank you to our volunteers
National Volunteer Week / Te Wiki Tūao ā-Motu runs from 14 to 20 June, and we want to use this as an opportunity to say something simple but heartfelt to the people who keep athletics going across the motu: thank you.
Our sport doesn’t happen without volunteers. Picture a typical winter Saturday at a cross country race. Event organisers have been out since early, marking the course. Someone is at the registration table handing out race numbers and sorting the entries that came in overnight. There are officials and timekeepers at the finish, marshals standing on cold corners so runners go the right way, and a coach who has shown up to training through every dark Tuesday evening since the season started.
We’re grateful to the club committee and sub-committee members who keep clubs running, and to the centre board members and patrons who give their governance, their time and their long memory of the sport. Our coaches, officials, administrators and team managers carry so much of the load, often quietly. And none of it would come together without the people who set up courses and pack them down, look after equipment, hand out uniforms, and do the hundred small jobs that turn an empty field into a day of athletics.
This is mahi aroha: work done out of love for the sport and the people in it. To every volunteer across Aotearoa: thank you for your time, your patience, and your commitment to our athletes and to the sport of Athletics. We see it, and we don’t take it for granted.
This year’s theme of National Volunteer Week is Your Year to Volunteer – Tōu tau ki te tūao, chosen to mark the International Year of the Volunteer. It’s both a thank-you to everyone already giving their time, and an open invitation to anyone who’s been thinking about getting started. If you’ve ever thought about lending a hand, this is a good year to start. Clubs and centres around the country would welcome you.
If you want to get involved, there are endless opportunities to lend a hand. Click here to learn more.
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Click here to learn more.