Sport Wellington wins NZ Recreation Association Award

November 23 2012

Sport Wellington wins New Zealand Recreation Association Award for their 2012 AMI Round the Bays Event

Sport Wellington has won an Outstanding Event Award at the New Zealand Recreation Association (NZRA) Awards Dinner held in Auckland last night. The award was won for the 2012 AMI Round the Bays fun run which had a record breaking 12,295 participants.

However it was for the quality of the event rather than the quantity of participants for which Sport Wellington was recognised.

Judges made mention of the accessibility of the event including free transport to and from the event, online entry systems and a social media community surrounding the event which distinguishes it as more than just a fun run. Community engagement was also a stand out aspect with Sport Wellington using the event to build relationships with Athletics Wellington and Oriental and Evan’s Bay residents.

Kio Bay Resident Lynne Klapp said that they loved it. “A Bay meeting was called before the 2012 event. It was agreed that every house in the Bay would at least put up balloons. Flags and bunting were also shared around. Several dressed up, had horns and water pistols. A bonus of the [event] is the Bay now has a contact list that will be used for a Kio Bay newsletter.”

AMI Round the Bays Event Director Craig Ireson said ‘ the award is a testament to the skill and passion of the many hundreds of event day staff, volunteers and sponsors and stakeholders who contribute their time and expertise to the safe and professional running of the event.”

Sport Wellington is a regional sports trust which promotes, develops and advocates for Sport and recreation in the Wellington region. AMI Round the Bays is just one of many events and programmes which Sport Wellington organise to provide opportunities for people to reach their personal sport, recreation and wellbeing goals.

The 2013 event is scheduled for Sunday 17 February and already has 2500 registered participants. Craig Ireson says that it is likely to once again sell out, despite the increase in capacity to 13,000 participants, and encourages people to enter as soon as possible to guarantee their place on the start line come February.

AMI Insurance is once again the principal sponsor and the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, also supported by AMI, is once again the official charity partner.

The Wellington region was well represented in the 2012 NZRA Awards with Upper Hutt City Council winning the Outstanding Project Award for its programme ‘DIScover: Serving customers with disabilities’, while Wellington City Council’s ASB Sports Centre Project’ received Highly Commended recognition.

NZRA Chief Executive Officer Andrew Leslie said the judges felt that decisions were at times very difficult, especially in cases where competition was tight. “The judging panel were impressed with both the quality and level of nominations and those selected represent the best, most successful people, facilities, projects or events in the past year,” he said. “The nominees were all very good, but the winning nominations were outstanding.”

ENDS

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