Coastguard NZ Honours Its Volunteers

EDIA RELEASE

20 September 2010

Coastguard NZ Honours Its Volunteers

The winners of this year’s National Coastguard Awards were announced and celebrated over the weekend, as the New Zealand Coastguard community came together in Taupo to honour the year’s achievements.

Six annual awards were presented to individual volunteers and Coastguard units in recognition of their outstanding service to the organisation.

Coastguard New Zealand CEO Bruce Reid says, “Coastguard survives and thrives thanks to the dedication of our volunteers and we are pleased to be able to honour those exceptional individuals who make it all possible with these awards.”

Coastguard is New Zealand’s primary provider of marine search and rescue services.  It is made up of highly-trained volunteers who put themselves in harm’s way on a regular basis to ensure the safety of people at sea. Earlier this year, Coastguard celebrated its highest ever number of annual volunteer hours, with more than 330,000 hours donated by 2,100 professional volunteers across New Zealand.

 “This year’s award winners have all shown outstanding service to Coastguard and their local boating communities, and our sincere thanks goes out to those volunteers for their commitment to saving lives at sea,” says Reid.

In addition to awarding its volunteers on Saturday, Coastguard was also pleased to announce the appointment of its new president. Colin Small takes up the position after more than ten years involvement with the organisation, most recently holding position of Vice President of Coastguard New Zealand.

There are six categories for the awards –

Volunteer of the Year

Rachel McKenzie

Canterbury

Performance of the Year

Coastguard Marlborough

Marlborough

Rescue of the Year

Coastguard Kaikoura

Kaikoura

Operational Volunteer of the Year

Cliff Hodgman

Auckland

Air Patrol Volunteer of the Year

Alan Murgatroyd

Northland

Rescue Vessel Volunteer of the Year

Murray Paul

Kaikoura

The individual award recipients each receive a prize that assists in furthering their education, and professional development, within Coastguard.

Winners:

 
Coastguard Marlborough, Performance of the Year – Coastguard Marlborough’s commitment to engaging with and pooling the resources of the local community has resulted in an extraordinary fundraising achievement of more than $800,000 for the construction of permanent operations centre for the local Coastguard and St John.

Coastguard Kaikoura, Rescue of the Year – The Kaikoura team is being honoured for its exceptional performance in response to a June incident involving the rescue of four individuals from Marguerite, a yacht that struck a whale 30km off the Kaikoura coast. In the past 12 months they have contributed 3,425 hours of voluntary service, 1,242 in training and 512 in search and rescue activities.

Rachel McKenzie, Volunteer of the Year – Rachel has been involved in Coastguard for more than 17 years. During this time, she has held a number of positions within her unit including Safety Officer, Training Officer, Senior Skipper and Police Marine SAR Advisor. She is also an active board member for Coastguard Canterbury and Coastguard Southern Region.

Cliff Hodgman, Operational Volunteer of the Year – With a dedicated commitment to his duties as Radio Operator for Coastguard Northern Region, Cliff has contributed hugely to the safety of boaties on Auckland’s waters and is an invaluable member of the communications team.

Alan Murgatroyd, Air Patrol Volunteer of the Year – Dedicated to the Coastguard Air Patrol and wider Coastguard organisation for more than 12 years, Alan consistently goes beyond the call of duty to deliver exceptional service and has contributed broadly to his unit’s rescue, training, recruitment and fundraising efforts.

Murray Paul, Rescue Vessel Volunteer of the Year – According to his team, Murray is a willing and enthusiastic participant in all Coastguard activities. In the past year this has involved a number of difficult rescues and also included overseeing the rebuild of the Coastguard Kaikoura premises.

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