Alice an ace volunteer and a Volunteer of the Month

An overseas experience led to Volunteering Mid & South Canterbury and the Hotel Ashburton Volunteer of the Month Alice Czerski beginning with volunteering.

Alice spent ten years working in the United Kingdom and while working in London her school engaged with some of the big names in business like QBE, Société Générale, Lloyds to have staff do volunteering. Alice saw firsthand how valuable that was to have businesses partner with schools and Not for Profits to offer the volunteering experience.

When Alice arrived back in Ashburton, her mother, was the Children’s Librarian at the Ashburton Public Library and was on the committee of the Mid Canterbury Children’s Day and Alice wasn’t sure if she was voluntold or strongly encouraged by her Mum to get involved in what is now called the Mid Canterbury Children’s Trust.

Alice said, “many have come before me, showed me from a young age the impact of volunteering has on others and on yourself”. She said “so many people in Ashburton give their time out of their days. From big service groups and organisations like Lions, Rotary, the Fire Service and St Johns to smaller groups like Boost, school PTA’s. clubs and sports”.

Alice is very enthusiastic about her volunteering and said that while it’s a small team of committee and trustees that run Mid Canterbury Children’s Trust that it’s a great group to work with and when people move on from the committee and trust to continue to keep in contact and often volunteer at the activities they run.

Alice has and continues to do many tasks as part of the team she had been secretary, is currently the President, helps with the fund raising including joining her parents on the BBQ they hold to raise funds.

While the Trust is possibly best known for running the very successful Children’s Day at the Tinwald Domain where over 5000 folks turn up, participate in activities they children may not otherwise be able to as the whole day, food, drinks, rides activities are all provided free thanks to the fundraising they do and the grants they receive.

The trust is there to support whanau/families to help them spend time together doing activities. This year they have already offered paintballing and peddlemania at open days at the Plains Railway, offered face painting at the Glow in the Park celebrations, provided crafts at Hakatere Marae Matariki celebrations and put together activities for households with children who were isolating with covid, something they are continuing to do.

The Trust are always open to suggestions of ideas they could do and like the fact that their network is expanding, and they are able to diversify what they are offer.

Having grown up in Mid Canterbury and seen both her parent’s giving to the community through a variety of organisations, Alice said it was just natural for her to volunteer and now she and her husband are setting the same example for their children. In the past Alice has been a volunteer on a PTA and with Ashburton Toy Library.