Third-year University of Otago students and Castle St
flatmates Robert Mitchell (left) and Taitaihono Nikora
clean windows as part of the Scarfie Card volunteer scheme.
Photo Aaron Thomson.
Along with more ordinary tasks such as gardening and
washing windows, some of the students volunteering as part of
Dunedin's new Scarfie Card scheme have tackled some unusual
assignments.
One elderly woman needed a young and fit person to climb and
pick apples from the top of the tree in her garden, while
another needed help to set up an online account. Two students
refereed at a community touch rugby event.
The scheme, devised by Christian campus organisation Student
Life director Aaron Thomson, invites students to carry out
tasks in return for claiming rewards such as meals out, ski
passes, concert tickets and free admission to tourist
attractions.
The 10-week pilot, open to students from two residential
colleges and those living in Castle St flats, is at its
halfway mark.
The results were "encouraging", Mr Thomson said this week.
So far, 161 students had registered with the website-based
scheme, 78 tasks had been listed and 34 tasks had been
completed.
The completion rate had been higher in the North Dunedin
suburbs, but tasks had also been completed as far afield as
Macandrew Bay, he said.
Green Island resident Sue Hewitt, who has a back problem,
said she was happy with the scheme.
It took three "bright and breezy" volunteers an hour to stack
her supply of firewood for the winter, bag up some wood chips
and fill her numerous coal buckets, she said.
"It would have been a difficult job for me. It probably would
have taken me 10 times as long working at snail's pace."
Ms Hewitt also wanted her windows washed and a hedge and
bushes trimmed but no-one volunteered for those tasks.
Mr Thomson said as awareness of the scheme grew,
organisations were beginning to approach him. ACC, which was
trying to reduce the number of elderly people slipping or
falling at home, was interested in providing volunteers with
equipment so they could water-blast residents' paths and
steps and reduce moss and other hazards, he said.
"We are very keen to become involved. We're about connecting
with people's worlds and this sounds ideal."
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