Friends of Hospital Trust wins national award

March 17th, 2010
[from Press release]

The Friends of Motueka Hospital Trust, representing Nelson City and Tasman District, has been named Supreme Winner at the prestigious TrustPower National Community Awards. The Awards were announced last Saturday 13 March at the 2009 awards dinner, held at the World of Wearable Arts and Classic Cars Museum (WOW) in Nelson.

The announcement comes after a full day for the 25 teams participating in the TrustPower National Community Awards. Today, each regional team gave an eight minute presentation on their activities or project in a judging session held at the Nelson School of Music. The teams were judged on that presentation and on a 1,000 word summary each group provided prior to the event.

The Friends of Motueka Hospital Trust was represented at the TrustPower National Community Awards by Jack and John Inglis, along with Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne and his wife Jane and Nelson City Mayor Kerry Marshall and Nelson City Councillor Gail Collingwood.

The Friends of Motueka Hospital Trust was established after the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board decided to close the existing community hospital in Motueka. The people of Motueka joined forces to fight the closure and in the process ended up fundraising and building a new hospital to meet the community's needs. The new 45 bed community hospital boasts state of the art equipment, an ensuite bathroom for all room and a therapeutic bath with its own lifting equipment.

At the TrustPower National Community Awards the Trust gave a heartfelt eight minute presentation during which they told the participants of how nearly every person in Motueka was involved in the effort to build their hospital and how they are now fundraising to extend the facility.

As TrustPower National Community Award Supreme Winner, the Friends of Motueka Hospital Trust receives a trophy, $2,500 prize money and a framed certificate. The Supreme Winner also takes home a prize package from Foresee Communications, specialists in sponsorship and fundraising resources, training and advice. The prize package includes a $1,000 workshop or conference credit, resources for the winning group's library and a free telephone consultation with Foresee's Director Heather Newell.

TrustPower Community Relations Manager Graeme Purches says the Friends of Motueka Hospital Trust are an inspiration to all New Zealand communities who are seeking to improve their local health services.

"TrustPower is proud to lead the way in recognising, rewarding and celebrating the incredible contribution volunteers make to New Zealand communities," says Graeme Purches.

"All 25 groups participating in the TrustPower National Community Awards are shining examples of the amazing work volunteers undertake every day in cities and districts all around New Zealand. These groups have already won recognition in their regions and we are delighted to be able to showcase their efforts nationally at this weekend's event," says Mr Purches.

The Awards were judged by a panel of independent judges, including Director of the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector Alasdair Finnie, Newstalk ZB's Kerre Woodham, Jim Mora from Radio New Zealand and 'Mucking In', Heather Clark from Volunteering New Zealand and Dick Fernyhough from the Community Trust of Wellington.

The Awards were also filmed by a TVNZ 6 crew, who will be profiling the Supreme Winner and Runner Up through a new series called Volunteer Power, to screen on TVNZ 6 in late May.

Also involved in the judging process were each of the 25 voluntary groups at the Awards. Each of the groups had one vote, with the peer voting making up 50% of the final judging score and the independent judging panel's votes making up the other 50%.

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