Garry Hawkins is Volunteer of the Month.
He is president of Coastguard Wanganui, one of the many volunteers who maintain the service throughout New Zealand.
Coastguard colleague Jonathan Seagers had this to say:
"Garry Hawkins has had an illustrious volunteer career with the Wanganui Volunteer Coastguards.
He started as a trainee crew member way back in 2006. He already had his own recreational boat, but felt he needed to 'put back' some of the benefits he had experienced whilst out boating.
In 2010, he achieved his qualification as a senior crew member, which allowed him to assume more crew responsibilities when tasked with sea rescues.
In 2013, when the Coastguard Committee embarked on a project to rebuild the headquarters, Garry was active in the fundraising, and was intimately involved as part of the project team, with the architect and builders to ensure that everything necessary was incorporated.
Garry was instrumental in obtaining ongoing sponsorship from Trustpower for maintenance of the rescue boat.
In 2016, Garry was appointed president of Wanganui Coastguard and as such continues to be involved in ongoing discussions with the port authority, district council and Horizons Regional Council to eliminate the problem of silting of the harbour and shipping channels."
Last week, Sandra Rickey, manager of Volunteer Whanganui, presented Garry with a certificate, a lapel badge and a $40 voucher, courtesy of Mud Ducks cafe.
"I'd like to say that this is not about me individually, it's about the unit," says Garry. "I'm only one cog in the wheel."
Garry spent his childhood summers at Kai Iwi beach where his mother operated the motor camp. As kids, they had a dinghy they used in the stream, under parental instructions to never take it out to sea.
"But, kids being kids, we did.
"It just progressed from there. We had a boat of our own for a couple of years, then my brother went off to do his motorcycle racing and I got into scuba diving." That led him into an interest in underwater photography and he became president of the Underwater Club in Whanganui in the 1980s. During that time, because the police did not have a dive squad, the club got involved in searches, including retrieving the pilot from a plane that had crashed off the coast in 1985.
"In 2006 a mate of mine conned me into joining the Coastguard."
Like most volunteers, Garry performed his Coastguard duties while working a fulltime job.
"I started in 1974 as an apprentice electrician with the Wanganui-Rangitikei Electric Power Board ... progressed to foreman. In 1996, we had the merger with Taranaki and that's when I moved into a role called electrical co-ordinator, looking after all the sub-station work for Wanganui."
He then became network scheduler until another restructure when he became computerised maintenance management systems engineer.
"Then I moved into a role called asset management business representative, working on a project to integrate a lot of the systems Powerco had."
When he retired he was a project manager.
"To be a volunteer ... I'll talk about the 'wet crew', the people who go on the boat. We've got about 15 wet crew. If you join the unit we put you through all the training."
He says there are a lot of modules, from basic health and safety through to the more advanced to senior crew then on to skipper. Garry has never aspired to the latter.
"Even if you've never been on a boat before, we'll train you up. You've just got to have sea legs.
"We do a lot of training in the river." He says while they're always looking for crew, there's a constant need for shore-based radio operators.
Coastguard Wanganui, over October, November, December and January, clocked up the following statistics:
Radio operators spent 2926 hours on call; they took 4510 log entries; there were 2331 boats out with a total of 11,057 people on board; there were four emergencies, five overdue boats resolved.
Garry says they have about 900 boats on their register.
"If you're going to be a boatie, I would encourage everyone to join Coastguard. Go on to the Coastguard website and sign up for national membership. It's $115 and that covers you for anywhere in New Zealand."
