Omanu surf life saving club members with their new rescue boards. Photo / Supplied
TSB's support for New Zealand's regional Surf Life Saving Clubs has passed the $500,000 mark.
The bank has invested $100,000 of annual funding to Surf Life Saving New Zealand since 2016.
This year TSB's grants have given the life-saving services in the Bay of Plenty a boost in training and equipment.
One grant of $12,752 went towards 15 cadets in Maketū's junior surf training programme.
Meanwhile, the club in Omanu was funded $6000 to buy new rescue boards.
TSB chief executive Donna Cooper said the TSB team was very proud to support regional surf lifesaving clubs around Aotearoa.
"We're so lucky in Aotearoa that 90 per cent of us live within 40 minutes of our local beach, but that's a lot of New Zealanders counting on our volunteer surf lifeguards to keep us safe," Cooper said.
"Yet our volunteer-based clubs are largely reliant on the generosity of the community to literally save lives.
"So as a New Zealand owned bank that's part of your community, we're proud to put our profit to purpose to support this important work."
This year $100,000 in TSB grants will fund several new surf rescue innovations. In New Brighton Christchurch, beach surveillance technology digitally counts the number of beachgoers, helping track crowd numbers and monitor changing beach conditions.
For Whanganui Surf Life Saving Club and Kotuku Surf Life Saving Club on the West Coast, the grants will fund new VHF radio tracking technology to provide additional safety and communications to lifeguards on the water.
Other TSB grants will support clubs to purchase All Terrain Vehicles, patrol towers, storage solutions and sunshades, so their volunteer teams are prepped to keep communities safe this summer.
Surf Life Saving chief executive Paul Dalton said the TSB grants provided vital support to clubs.
"We are incredibly grateful to our major partner TSB for providing their annual grants schemes for our surf lifesaving clubs," Brighton said.
"With the constant need to replace frontline equipment, funding is not readily available or accessible to support the more innovative surf lifesaving projects or obtain rescue equipment for training our junior surf members.
"The TSB grants are helping us future proof surf lifesaving by providing the gear for our next generation of lifeguards and giving our clubs the ability to explore new approaches in keeping Kiwis safer on Aotearoa's beaches."
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