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The Kowhai Coast Lions donated $6500 to the North Rodney Blue Light (NRBL), the charity and community youth organisation based in Wellsford, at a dinner hosted at the Warkworth RSA on February 25.
The Treemendous Christmas Tree display held at the Warkworth Masonic Hall last year raised $6000 for NRBL while $500 came from other Lions’ fundraising activities such as barbecues and catering.
NRBL community youth coordinator Shane Gould says the money is amazingly helpful and will be going towards a variety of opportunities for young people, including leadership camps and training programmes.
“We’ve always run our programmes as cost efficiently as possible. We try to run most things subsidised.
We want kids to have an enjoyable experience at a fairly reasonable cost,” he says.
“Blue Light’s got a huge amount of credibility and I think in our area, continuity. But a lot of people still don’t know about us. That’s why we’re trying to help spread the word. We were just up at Wellsford on Saturday doing a youth expo.”
NRBL secretary Senior Constable Katie Hawkins says it’s becoming harder for the organisation to get funding so the Lions’ donation “is huge”.
“The money goes directly back into the local community. Every dollar that’s given is a dollar that goes to young people.”
Lions director Liz Price says she was very pleased with the amount they had raised for Blue Light, which topped their fundraising efforts in 2023.
To learn more about North Rodney Blue Light visit their website: https://www.nrbl.org.nz/
Or follow them on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NorthRodneyBluelight/
