Lifting spirits, not profits

By TOM CLARKE

The strength of spirit of young people suffering from cancer is "totally inspiring," says American Jeff Winegar, the new managing director of the peer support group, Canteen.

Canteen is otherwise known as the Teenage Cancer Patients' Society and members are aged between 15 and 24.

They face challenges that no normal teenager would possibly understand, Mr Winegar says, but they gain strength by understanding through each other that they are not alone.

"It's totally overwhelming working here. The things that I need to do and the tasks that lie in front of me are tremendous, but I feel excited because it's all for absolutely the right reasons."

Canteen, established here in the 80s, is modelled on similar organisations overseas.

Mr Winegar says that it is not a babysitting organisation or a counselling service. Canteen is for the members, by the members, with adults acting very much as coordinators and facilitators of peer support.

Members lead regional committees and have the majority vote on the national executive.

This helps to empower them, says Mr Winegar, at a time when they have a sense of having lost a great degree of control.

Mr Winegar's appointment represents a new direction for Canteen, which has decided to move away from volunteer coordinators to paid staff in the main centres. His role is to make the transition work, while also improving the quality and quantity of support available.

He believes that running Canteen is similar to running a business. The difference is that Canteen involves a humane non-profit service.

"A lot of the same principles and business and management processes apply," he says, "but we're here to make a difference and not necessarily to make a profit.

"Canteen is still entirely dependent upon volunteers, but to better manage the growth and the improvement of programmes in terms of quality, it really needs a professional edge to national and local management.

"There's only a small handful of paid people, so we're still heavily dependent on volunteers at all levels, from coordinators down to people just willing to pitch in and help."

Mr Winegar says Canteen needs more financial help, more recognition and support, and more volunteers.

"It's a very competitive world when it comes to non-profit organisations these days, and it's growing more so all the time. There are a lot of good causes all competing for the same dollar.

"We desperately need more good people and more good dollars to help us, and to maintain our programme quality."

Mr Winegar was born and educated in Denver, Colorado, and has a science background. He worked in sales and management roles with an American laboratory equipment manufacturer and supplier until moving to New Zealand in 1996. This followed a month-long holiday here three years earlier.

Before taking up his new role, he worked for the local laboratory equipment supplier, Biolab New Zealand Ltd, in marketing and customer service management.