Ask Annie

All around Tauranga, a bunch of women - and a few men - are busy in their kitchens baking cakes and slices they’ll never get to eat.It’s World Kindness Day on November 13, and many Good Bitches around the country are dropping off their goodies to women’s refuges,...

Alzheimer’s Tauranga is urgently looking for volunteers to help support families affected by dementia.The organisation provides a range of services to more than 600 families across the Western Bay of Plenty each year, a figure which is consistently growing. A number...

Katikati volunteer manager Lesley Ruf wears many hats - and she’s desperate for more volunteers to manage. Next week it’s International Volunteer Managers’ Day on November 5, and all over the Bay of Plenty, managers are being celebrated for the work they do for no...

This week 180 talented youngsters from four primary and intermediate schools are packing their new costumes and travel uniforms to compete in the national schools kapa haka contest in Nelson. The children, aged between seven and 11, are from Matapihi and Maungatapu...

Western Bay social and community sector advocate SociaLink is concerned that a Tauranga emergency housing provider has been forced to close in the middle of the city’s homelessness crisis. Aroha House in Cameron Rd was set up by Memphis Robson-Frentz in 2020, who...

The Kollective, in Tauranga’s 17th Avenue, celebrates five years of bringing not-for-profit organisations together this month.The Kollective is New Zealand’s largest co-working space dedicated to the success of not-for-profits, socal enterprise and charitable...

Candidates representing some of the major political parties presented their ideas on social issues this week to an audience of about 50 people working in the social and charities sector.The meeting was organised by SociaLink and Volunteering Services which supports...

International relationship researcher Rory Kilmartin is running a day-long workshop in Te Puke next month to help people build more effective communication and relationships.The workshop is on Monday October 9, 9.30am to 5pm at the Orchard Church, MacLoughlin Dr, Te...

Kat Reihana’s efforts to help others in the Tauranga community have saved her mental health - and she says could help many more.Kat runs Kat’z Clothes on Wheels, a free clothing service for the homeless and those in need that she runs out of a van and a couple of...

Volunteering Services and Envirohub are running a fundraiser screening of the Rena disaster movie Taking Back Our Beach next month to raise funds for two environmental groups.The screening will be held on Wednesday 11 October at 6.45pm, at United Cinemas Bayfair, and...

It’s Conservation Week this week, and all over the Western Bay of Plenty volunteers are out in all weather laying traps and ensuring native birds and flora can survive.Conservation volunteer John Rowlandson spends hours each week trapping “the baddies” - stoats,...