Seventh Local Legends Grant Winner

Congratulations to Tauranga Volunteer Coastguard for being awarded the seventh $5,000 Local Legend Grant.

We had a great time meeting the crew and heading out in the boat that has been used to help thousands of kiwis in need of assistance out at sea.

The team run a 24/7 service and offer their time to keep the community safe out on the water.

Dane, Operations Manager, and crew volunteer said, “In 2021 our 47 crew volunteers spent over 1,400 hours on the water safely bringing back to shore 590 people (an average of 11 people a week). Our 29 Radio Room volunteers spent a combined 4,300 hours monitoring the local marine VHF channels and logging over 30,000 trip reports. Our volunteers are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

When asking Dane what this $5,000 grant means to him and his team, his response was “It means our volunteers are not having to spend as much time raising funds to keep the unit running and spend more of their time on training and operational work.  It means our volunteers can focus on saving lives at sea.”

Dane mentioned that it’s been a busy month assisting the community on the water which can result in a fuel bill of $5,000. It has so far been a record year for their unit with having attended 96 on water rescues.

If you want to offer your help, visit the guys at Sulphur Point, they are always on the lookout for new volunteers!