Celebrating our invaluable volunteers, mentors and interns
The work we do would not be possible without our amazing volunteers who give up their time to help us run programmes and engage with Dreamers. They give so much of themselves and are such great role models for our kids.
On Monday 2nd December we had a celebration to acknowledge and thank all of our I Have a Dream Volunteers, Mentors and Interns.
It was a wonderful night with about 90 people in attendance including our I Have a Dream staff team, Dreamers and whānau, and our Mentors, Volunteers and Interns.
Volunteering and Mentoring Manager Kirsty Pillay-Hansen reflected on the night. “We had a great night filled with kōrero, kai, photos and stories, gifts and stories shared. This is an important event for us to acknowledge and thank all of our Volunteers who support our programmes throughout the year” she said
Delicious kai was served and our Volunteers received special gifts to thank them for their contribution.
Special acknowledgement and thanks was made to our amazing team of Te Wahi Tumunako Volunteers Bono, Mania-May, Jill, Bonita and Ann who have supported Dreamers with their learning for the last 2 years.
We would especially like to thank our speakers who contributed to the night and spoke about their experience with I Have a Dream.
- Dreamer Lulu who spoke about her I Have A Dream experience, the special relationship with Volunteers and her own volunteering experience
- Youth Volunteer Waiki who shared his diverse and long held experience volunteering for I Have a Dream, and his goals and dreams for the Navy and continuing his youth work
- Our star MC’s for the night Te Aranga and Cat
Thank you to these speakers who gave our guests a personal insight into I Have a Dream and shared wonderful stories, laughter and inspiration.
Coming up in 2025.
We are full swing into planning our 2025 summer holiday programmes. We do need volunteer support to run these programmes and many of our wonderful team have already signed up for fun days helping out at the pools, the beach, doing arts and crafts and amazing races!
Our Volunteers and Mentors continue to tautoko (support) Dreamers and programmes through the summer and into 2025 and we are so grateful for all the enthusiasm and commitment that they continue to give.
We have a group of around 30 new volunteers raring to go in 2025 and will start our year off with induction, training and matching for them. We are grateful to the local high schools that we are able to work with to provide these opportunities for high school students to support our Dreamers.
Wishing all our Volunteers a safe, fun and relaxed summer holiday season. We value and appreciate you all.
If you or anyone you know is interested in Volunteering for I Have a Dream please contact Kirsty at kirsty@ihaveadream.org.nz.
