Tauranga homeless support group Under The Stars wins Trustpower national community award

Tauranga City Mayor Greg Brownless (left) with Under The Stars founder Liz Kite and volunteer Tamaryn Roux. Photo / Supplied

A local social advocacy group has won an award at the annual Trustpower National Community Award presentations in Tauranga.

Twenty-six voluntary organisations from around the country were in the city this weekend for the awards ceremony.

Under The Stars, a group that helps Tauranga's homeless people, received the newly introduced Whetū Mātaiata Award.

Matipo Community Development Charitable Trust, representing Whanganui District,
was named supreme winner and South Catlins Charitable Trust, a group representing Invercargill City and Southland District, was runner-up.

Among the groups – which spanned communities from Catlins to the Far North – were representatives from Tauranga City, Whakatāne District and Western Bay of Plenty District councils.

At the event, held at Holy Trinity in the central city, each organisation delivered an eight-minute presentation.

It was a chance to share their stories and achievements and make a case for why they deserved the title of the Trustpower National Community Awards Supreme Winner.

All 26 had already won a regional award to get to the nationals, and their presentations on Saturday were judged alongside a 1000-word summary submitted before the event.

Liz Kite, from Under the Stars, said she was just honoured to be there, as regional winner for Tauranga City. She was the first person to present on Saturday morning.

"It's such an opportunity to speak for what we do and the people we serve on the streets and the needy in our community."

Liz Kite from Under the Stars in Tauranga. Photo / Andrew Warner

Kite said she wanted to share a message about being kind to homeless people, about being there for them and about having compassion for the state that they're in.

"The mental illness state that some of them are in," she then added.

"Under the Stars provides as much as we can to help their wellbeing."

Representing Whakatāne District, Lee Heappey and Helen Morris, from the Edgecumbe Development and Improvement Team (E.D.I.T), shared how their group had pulled together and beautified Edgecumbe since the 2017 flood.

"We are definitely moving forward in a creative way," Heappey said.

Morris said it was inspiring to see and hear what other groups from around New Zealand were doing for their communities.

"And it's all different … it's food for thought and it just shows you how compassionate people are about what they're doing."

For Western Bay of Plenty District, Ian Hurlock and Geoff Oliver, from the Maketū Volunteer Coastguard, said their presentation was less about rescues and more about the organisation's involvement in the community: training people, helping people understand how to be safe on the water, or operate their boat safely.

"And working in the community to educate people, moreover."

Ian Hurlock (left) and Geoff Oliver from the Maketū Volunteer Coastguard. Photo / Andrew Warner

Oliver said the volunteer coastguard, like other rescue organisations in attendance, was all about volunteers putting a lot of time in to bring people home safely.

He has been volunteering at the Maketū coastguard for 13 years.

"I got involved in a couple of rescues with a small group where we had some preventable fatalities and so we set it up, really, to make sure people along that coastline where we are, are a lot safer."

Hurlock has been volunteering for two years, since the coastguard rescued his son.