Recipient of a Tararua civic honour, Eketahuna's Charlie Death (left), his wife Rena Tyler and Tararua District mayor Tracey Collis at the ceremony in the Nireaha Hall, November 10, 2018. Photo / File
Recipient of a Tararua civic honour, Eketahuna's Charlie Death (left), his wife Rena Tyler and Tararua District mayor Tracey Collis at the ceremony in the Nireaha Hall, November 10, 2018. Photo / File
Charlie Death is calling it a day in local politics, having served 24 years, continuously, on the Eketāhuna Community Board - the last 12 as chairman. He thinks it's time to give someone else a turn.
His service has spanned three mayors: Maureen Reynolds (12 years), Roly Ellis (two terms) and Tracey Collis (two terms.) "I've made lots of friends over the years. It's a very strong community in Eketāhuna. If you work together, you will achieve. I made many friends on the Tararua District Council, they are brilliant people to work with," he said.
His community service started at the Nireaha School, where he spent six years as chairman of the Home and School Committee from 1991-1996. When a vacancy arose on the Eketāhuna Community Board a few years later, Charlie stood and was elected.
Santa satisfaction
He has a heart for the community, as shown by his role as Father Christmas in Nireaha for 10 years, then at council meetings, Eketāhuna Carols by Candlelight for 10 years and Pūkaha Mount Bruce.
"I enjoyed it - you were there to put a smile on the child's face. What else can you ask for? That's what it's all about," Charlie said of his time as Santa Claus.
Town pride: Eketahuna Community Board member Pauline Wilson, left, Tararua District mayor Tracey Collis, and community board members, Sharon Shannon and Charlie Death. Photo / File
One of the satisfying results in his term was establishing a turn-off bay at Newman which was a safety issue for trucks turning from State Highway 2. "This, in due course, came off. NZTA came to our meeting and a representative said 'if you start debating it, you'll get nothing.' We kept quiet and now we've got a turn-off bay, particularly useful for trucks turning. That was a really big achievement," said Charlie.
He was involved with the Choice TV Heritage Rescue series for the Eketāhuna Museum. "That was a special time, to get that up and running," he said.
A big highlight for Charlie was approving the "amazing" carvings in the Eketāhuna Community Hall, by carver Jeff Bryan from Akitio at the time. "This is very detailed work, depicting local history and needs to be seen to be believed," said Charlie. Totara was used from the Nireaha Totara Reserve. This source also provided totara for the Masterton Police Station, which has a carving too.
Eketāhuna's town upgrade gave the board an opportunity to work with the community on concepts, rather than new footpaths, to attract people to the town. Charlie says it has really helped the town immensely.
The War Memorial project with standing soldiers was something special. One comment Charlie had was: "It's that good, it could be in Wellington."
Volunteering for community
Charlie has been judging for the Tararua Sports Awards and is still doing it, after 20 years. The TrustPower Awards for volunteers that Charlie also judges are something that "would bring tears to your eyes, as so many people are doing great things for their towns," he said. "But you have to pick just one, they are such awesome people." He has also been involved with judging at Eketāhuna Primary School's Pet Day.
Civil Defence is an area where people need to be prepared and Charlie made sure locals were up to speed. This was tested in 2014, when - on Wellington Anniversary Weekend - he was working with police in Woodville on traffic management.
"Next thing, the ground started moving. The towers at the Woodville Railway Station were rocking," said Charlie. "People came through afterwards and said 'what's just happened, the car was shaking?'
"The awesome thing was that people were going to check on the elderly - it was absolutely brilliant. The police told me it was centred in Eketāhuna, so off I went. I got to Eketāhuna to find the civil Defence team at the Eketāhuna Community Centre, they had already checked on the elderly, that was absolutely what we were trying to achieve, it's the way it should be."
Rallying around
Anzac Day is a big thing for the Eketāhuna Community Board, in conjunction with the RSA. "You can have up to 150 people at that service. The 10th Transport Company has been coming for 30 years to this, they're just special people," Charlie said.
"They've done a lot around the community too, they do volunteer work with us and have done displays at the Eketāhuna Primary School. Being involved with the RSA has meant getting up on stage and introducing guests for 12 years.
"A memorable occasion was when Linda Haddon (née Petersen), who had been in my primary class at Nireaha, found out her brother got killed in Vietnam. In those days, they buried you over there.
"Eketāhuna stood up and paid for repatriation for the Pedersen family and got Brian back and buried him in Eketāhuna. At the service, Linda got up on stage and thanked the people of Eketāhuna for what they did. That was an emotional time," Charlie said.
"In recent times there were two suicides in a week, so a meeting was organised. This is a topic not enough people talk about. It's quite emotional going through the grief of someone dying. If you can help one person, that's positive."
Charlie spent nine years driving for the Health Shuttle service and met a lot of people in Southern Tararua. "If you can put a cheer on their face, these people, for whatever they are facing - it's just mighty. I really enjoyed doing that. You have to be there to support them."
Volunteering for the Pahiatua Railcar Society was another string to Charlie's bow when he assisted with traffic management for Christmas parades and thoroughly enjoyed doing that.
Charlie was surprised in 2018, when he and Rena received the ASB Good As Gold Award, where they were able to donate $5,000 towards the Eketāhuna Health Centre and were given $5,000 to use for themselves, spending it on a trip to the USA.
Civic Award
A Civic Award was a great honour for Charlie, on November 10, 2018. He was described as a "genuine good bloke" by those who packed the Nireaha Hall.
"Community is at the heart of everything Charlie does with pride and enthusiasm," said mayor Tracey Collis. "He has served with integrity, care and respect for more than 30 years. Charlie always champions Eketāhuna and promotes this wonderful town like no one else."
