About 60 staff mobilised for EIT’s first-ever volunteer week, giving their time and hands-on commitment to support worthy causes in their communities.

Staff from all three campuses – Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti and Auckland – were asked to brainstorm proposals for the “Volunteer for a Day” event. Volunteer Hawke’s Bay also helped in providing volunteer opportunities.

With the approval of their managers, those taking part formed teams with colleagues to work in the community as volunteers.

In Hawke’s Bay, for example, volunteers picked up plastic waste from the Awatoto foreshore while another group weeded, trimmed shelter belts and stacked piles of wood for the Leg-Up Trust, which works with disadvantaged children using horses as a therapy.

Volunteers in Auckland cleaned up a green area in the city and Tairāwhiti staff helped out at the Eastwood Arboretum near Gisborne.

The event, the brainchild of EIT’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing committee, was based on Te Whare Tapa Whā, a Māori health model developed by Sir Mason Durie (KNZM).

One of the model’s underpinning tenets is the Māori concept of wairau (spirituality). Research supports the belief that giving one’s own time for the wider community good yields physical, emotional and mental as well as spiritual benefits.