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One of the region’s longest running and most distinctive summer events, the Waipu Highland Games, has been saved from the brink of disaster after a desperate plea for extra volunteers.
Numbers of organisers and helpers had dropped to such a low level there were fears that the 148th games, set for their usual date of January 1, would have to be cancelled. Waipu Caledonian Society secretary Jill Mutch posted a heartfelt appeal for help on social media last month, saying the games were “in jeopardy and likely to cease”, and organised a special meeting on Sunday, August 19 to discuss the event’s future.
However, society chairman David Moon said the announcement that the games were in danger seemed to have spurred the community into action.
“That was a real driver, I think. There were about 30 to 35 people at the meeting and about 17 people came and put their name forward,” he said. “We can still use more people, but if all the people who volunteered front up, there will definitely be a games.”
Mr Moon said the drop in volunteers was largely a generational issue, with some people having helped for 40 to 50 years.
“They still help out, but they can’t do as much now and we haven’t had younger descendants coming through quite as much, probably because a lot of people have moved on and the interest doesn’t seem to be there quite as much these days,” he said. “We were getting to the stage where there just weren’t enough people.
“There are a whole lot of jobs that need to be done between now and the start of the games, but we were down to two or three people. We need to spread the load a bit.”
Anyone who would like to support the games should email secretary@waipugames.co.nz
