Rabobank New Zealand General Manager for Country Banking, Bruce Weir, said the bank launched the Good Deeds competition in 2017 to identify and support worthy rural community projects across New Zealand.
“As New Zealand’s only specialist food and agri bank, we know that rural communities are the lifeblood of New Zealand’s farming sector, and we’re committed to supporting projects that help strengthen these communities,” he said.
“The 2024 competition is the eighth edition of Good Deeds and, over the years, we’ve been able to lend our support to some amazing rural community projects located across Aotearoa.”
Recent competition winners include Beaconsfield School in South Canterbury (2023), the Te Ranga School Bush Classroom in the Bay of Plenty (2022) and the Douglas Kids’ Club in Taranaki (2021).
Weir said the labour days to support competition prize winners were always well attended by local Rabobank staff.
“Our teams get a lot of satisfaction from supporting good causes in their local communities and we usually have about two dozen staff in attendance at the working bees for the Good Deeds winners.
“I’ve also got along to a fair few of these labour days myself, and they’re always a great day out.
“They create a bit of a buzz in the local community and we always manage to get a fair bit done.”
Weir said the bank was particularly keen to receive entries from rural sports organisations in 2024.
“Recent competition entries have largely come from rural schools, community halls and catchment groups, and I’m sure we’ll see plenty of great entries from these types of organisations again this year.
“But we haven’t had too many entries from rural sports clubs. So, we’d really like to see a few more of these this time around as we know there are plenty of rural sports clubs out there who could do with a helping hand to spruce up their club rooms or training facilities.”
