Volunteers Critical for Airshow

Wanaka: Numbers released by Warbirds Over Wanaka International Airshow have highlighted the huge part volunteers play in making such a big event a success. It’s been estimated volunteers gave just under 10,000 hours to the 2016 airshow.

Warbirds Over Wanaka General Manager Ed Taylor says while they were always aware that volunteers gave a huge amount of time this was the first time they had gone through the numbers and added them all.

“The final figure doesn’t really surprise me and just reaffirms the crucial role volunteers play in our event,” says Ed.

“It starts right at the top with our Trustees who donate their time and expertise on an on-going basis. There are other volunteers who are onboard on a part-time basis as far as a year or more out from the airshow. Then there are the hundreds of people who help in the run up to, during the event itself and afterwards with the clean up.”

“If you paid every one of these people the minimum wage you would be looking at an additional wage bill of up to $150,000. Our event simply couldn’t go ahead if we did not have these wonderful people on the team.”

“It’s also great when the efforts of these people are recognised. I had a call from an elderly gentlemen in Napier the other day who just wanted to let me know how well he was looked after by volunteers in the car park and in the Gold Pass area at the airshow. He wanted to make sure I knew what a great job they did.”

Ed says Warbirds Over Wanaka is very fortunate that it has a high volunteer return rate, around 75%, and that it is able to attract volunteers from around New Zealand and even overseas which takes a bit of the pressure off locals.

“Having said that we do get amazing support from locals from around our region who just want to be able to give back to an event which has such a positive impact on our wider community,” says Ed.

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