6 November 2024

The 2024 Young Employee of the Year Awards were held of Wednesday 6th November with nominees, work colleagues, family and friends attending.

Young employee superstar Ella Tweedie took out the 2024 Rotary Young Employee of the Year award and received a scholarship to attend an eight-day Outward Bound Discovery Course. The business savvy marketing assistant at Stephenson and Taylor Ltd stood out among the 19 nominees for her keen attitude, high standard of work

and excellent customer relations.

Lisa Davey of Launch Active in Waipukurau and Liam Johnson of AMC Engineering Ltd were awarded highly recommended, and David Howard of Silver Fern Farms in Takapau won the Aspiring Young Employee of the Year award. All three received a RYLA (Rotary Young Leadership Award) scholarship to attend a national four-day young leadership course.

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5 August 2024

On Monday night the annual College Speeches took place to a packed audience. This is a highlight on the Rotary Club’s calendar. We must admire these brave students for getting up and speaking on a subject dear to their hearts, in front of their families and friends. Well done to you all.

The W.R Simmons Cup was won again by Hannah Webster (see photo at left) - a very accomplished speaker, Hannah has won the trophy for three straight years.

This year’s judges were Emma Cameron, Lynn Marsh and Doug Tate. The evenings comperes were students Libby Burne and Isaac Ellwood.

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24 June 2024

On Monday night our club held its changeover night - President Jane's year has come to an end and we welcomed new President David Tilyard.

Jane reported the highlights of her year which included financial help to cyclone Gabrielle families, Young Employee of the Year Award, College and Primary School speeches. She is proud of the clubs initiative to create a Friends of the Forest of Memories to involve the public in the park.

Dan von Dadelsen was presented a Paul Harris award for his contribution to Rotary, including his two year work on the 4WD trek fundraiser.

The coming year looks bright with our new president, David.

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1 June 2024

Recently Rotary engaged with local residents to join with our club to help with light maintenance at the Forest of Memories (Arboretum). 30 people volunteered which is fantastic. On Saturday the first gathering took place. It was a great day today for the Forest of Memories when about 15 volunteers armed with rakes and leaf blowers cleaned up the lower area of the Arboretum. This was the first working bee since we went public and invited locals to help out. The clearing of tracks and drains will not only tidy up the tracks, but enable other maintenance work to take place later.

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24 February 2024

We began our trek at the Omakere Hall with over 100 4WD vehicles. It was a sunny warm day and the train of vehicles spent the day travelling over coastal farms towards the south at Porangahau Beach. There were several stops along the way - the first at Omakere Hill where there was a spectacular vista (see photo). The group stopped at Aramoana Beach where volunteers had prepared a super lunch. Moving on then via the beach flats to Blackhead where we began to climb once again to view the hills and coastline. Finally stopping at Porangahau Beach for a BBQ and refreshments and watched the sunset. We have a lot of people to thank for this event - in particular Rotarian Dan von Dadelszen. Sponsors played a big part too and we thanks them.

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8 October 2023

Rotary President Jane Hamilton and Rotary Director of Vocational and Youth Donald Cooper presented the 2023 Rotary Young Employee of the Year, which went to Gagau Robert Stanley of Craigmore Horticulture, Springhill Orchard.

President Jane Hamilton said, “Interviewing the nominees for the Young Employee of the Year was the most incredible day of my life, seeing these young people develop as they have. The recognition that their employers have given by nominating them tonight says so much about them as individuals.”

Amongst the nominees, three were highly commended: Emma Cameron of Fitzherbert Rowe, Natalie Riddell of Veolia Water ANZ and Rhys Tamanui of the Waipawa Butchery.

Gagau closed of the night thanking his employer Myles Hemara, “The way I look at it, to create great leaders, you need a great leader to mentor you. I want to give back to my staff, as my leader trained me; I can give back to the young people we employ.”

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31 July 2023

On Monday night the annual CHB College speeches contest took place - this is a highlight of our Rotary year. As always the standard of speeches was high and they showed so much confidence.

This years judges were Doug Tate, Jenni Giblin and Tohu Seeds. The compares were Brenna Mackey and Tom Burne, both students from the college.

The overall winner was Hannah Webster, for the second year running. The cup was presented to her by Mrs. Pam O'Donnell. Pam is the daughter of the late Mr. W. R. Simmons, a Rotarian, who gifted the cup..

The junior section was won by Sariah Taufa, second was Luke Madsen and third Bree Franklin.

The intermediate section was won by Hannah Webster, second was Ramona Lively-Masters and third Zara Mackey.

The senior section was won by Libby Burne, second was Veronica Mills and third Ordania Rani.

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26 May 2023

Last Friday the Waipukurau Rotary Club were involved in a Farm Clearance Sale auction at Te Maire Farm on Tourere Road.

It was a very cold start to the day but things warmed up when the bidding started and the sun shone and the BBQ fired up.

It was a very successful day for the sellers and buyers, families and Rotary volunteers - all were happy with the results.

There was a great turnout of Rotarians who manned the BBQ, formed part of the auction team and ran the administration. A top effort.

Rotary thanks Jason Wyn-Harris for the opportunity to be part of the auction and to our auctioneer Wayne McDonagh who did a sterling job, and to Rotarians Pat Portas and John Marshall.

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20 March 2023

Last Monday evening the Club celebrated its 80th Birthday. Chartered on the 23 March 1943 the club has been serving the Central Hawkes Bay community ever since.

Rotarians celebrated this landmark with partners, Past Presidents, and guests. It was a fantastic evening talking about the history of the club, renewing acquaintances, reliving stories, and telling some more.

President Richard briefly reviewed the club’s history for the first 50 years and Rotarian John Hamilton the last 30 years.

The Past Presidents that attended relived their favourite memories of the club, while Rotarian Andrew Watts talked about the creation of the Arboretum and the links with Rotary. Andrew is our longest serving Rotarian starting on the 30/10/1978

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November 2022

Our club was proud to support Lackie Kirk, from Takapau, when he represented New Zealand at the Trampoline World Age Group Championships in Bulgaria. It was Lachies 1st ever World Age Group champs and his results were:

5th Double Mini Trampoline
31st tumbling
28th Individual trampoline

Totally Epic

Local coach and mentor Wayne Marsh was there beside him all the way.

8 November 2022

Rotary President Richard Haldane and Rotary Director of Vocational and Youth Jane Clouston, were both on hand to deliver the 2022 award to Ari Henson of Epic Ministries Inc, an organisation that mentors and inspires young leaders. “We are all so proud of Central Hawke’s Bay’s young people, who are stepping into positions with local businesses and organisations that encourage growth, while bringing talent, enthusiasm and new ideas to the table,” Mrs Clouston said.

There were 13 hopefuls nominated for the prestigious title - with two others taking out a highly commended achievement: Ashleigh Renata from New Zealand Police force and New World Waipukurau employee Rebecca Turfrey.

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12 September 2022

It was gratifying to hear from Taylor Morris and Penny Single from Epic Ministries how our funding had helped Epic Ministries further develop young peoples skills and character through the after school and in-school programs they manage.

They have intermediate and high school programs which include several camps and outdoor activities where leaders can gain a better understand of each of the participants while the attendees get to know their own capabilities. These camps are where our funding is appreciated most. Ironically the success of the programs they manage can often indicate to other funders that there is not a need for youth support in CHB!

Rotarian Garth Sherwood attested to the success of Epic Ministries work by reducing the amount of time he and his staff at CHB College need to devote to student support

8 August 2022

On Monday night the annual CHB College speeches contest took place - this is a highlight of our Rotary year. As always the standard of speeches was high and they showed so much confidence. This years judges were Lynn Marsh, Carol Pedersen and Doug Tate. The comperes were Curtis Osbourne and Ashlee Thompson, both students from the college. The overall winner was Hannah Webster and our President Richard Haldane presented her with the W.R. Simmons Cup. The junior section was won by Hannah Webster, second was Hope Harley and third Liberty Ormond. The senior section was won by Euan Breen, second was Hannah Ellwood and third Jivarose Niegos.

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27 June 2022

A fantastic turnout of members, partners and special guests for our changeover evening to welcome our incoming President Richard Haldane and giving thanks to Dennis Mills for his leadership over the past year. President Dennis took time to thank those that made his job easy and recount the many donations Rotary Waipukurau had made to groups and individuals in our local community over the last 12 months. He presented Prue Haldane with a potted plant and in return President Richard presented Christine Mills also with a potted plant in thanks for their contributions to the organisation. Trevor Plunkett deservedly received the Presidents Sovereign Award for his many hours of work behind the scenes maintaining our online presence and supporting other Rotarians.

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20 June 2022

Guests for this meeting included Jenni and Strat Giblin, Charles Nairn and staff from the Waipukurau Unichem Pharmacy who were the 2022 recipients of the Rotary Club Courtesy shield presented by Nick Lawson and very deserving after the last few years of testing conditions.

13 June 2022

Street Award. Parkland Drive, Waipawa is the 2022 Rotary Street Award recipient. Shown here after receiving the award are Greg & Chrissie Malcolm with William & Brittany Choat

1 May 2022

The CHB College students introduced their business project ‘Disconnected Youth Apparel’ developed as part of the Young Enterprise Scheme program. They are managing the design, manufacture and sales of hoodies and t-shirts whilst also raising money for three different charities. The students gave a detailed overview of what they have undertaken to launch this business, well done.!

Ian Willmont from the HB Rescue Helicopter Trust was our guest speaker for the evening. Ian outlined the history of this service from an original ad hoc setup to the 1992 creation of a dedicated helicopter based emergency service. The HBRHT has its own intensive care paramedics who are highly skilled personnel attending nearly 400 call outs in 2021 alone. These are accident/medical events (250) as well as hospital transfers (150).

4 April 2022

The sergeants session was given to Monique Davidson who is leaving the area having accepting the position of chief executive for he Horowhenua District Council. Members were prewarned that Monique would be expecting generous donations during her address and came well prepared. Monique reflected on her time in CHB, the relationships she has forged with work colleagues, rotary members and residents of our district resulting in a real appreciation of the quality of life available in a provincial region that would be hard to find in a large urban location. Jane Hamilton presented Monique with a citrus tree as a token of our thanks

4 April 2022

Members met at Stevenson and Taylor for our vocational visit to be greeted by Directors Robbie Smith, Duncan Harding, Brett Stevenson and Peter Swinburn. Robbie gave us a background to the company and its capabilities that covers engineering services, outdoor equipment, engineering supplies, sales service and repairs to a large range of agricultural and farming products. We were shown the various areas of their operations and appreciated the vast range of services they had to offer.

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