About 100 Otago volunteers are congratulated by Dunedin
Mayor Dave Cull during the Mayor's Morning Tea function for
International Volunteer Day at the Dunedin Public Library
yesterday. Photo by Linda Robertson.
Otago would be lost without its volunteers, Dunedin Mayor
Dave Cull says.
He congratulated and thanked about 100 volunteers during the
Mayor's Morning Tea held on International Volunteer Day at
the Dunedin Public Library yesterday.
Mr Cull said in his capacity as the mayor and a city
councillor he had become aware of the "enormous'' amount of
voluntary work undertaken in the wider community.
"I shudder to think what our communities would be like were
it not for the efforts of people like you,'' he told the
crowd.
Mr Cull said voluntary work ranged from random acts of
kindness to organised campaigns and benefited a wide variety
of people, including the volunteers themselves.
It was estimated volunteers in New Zealand did the work of
about 134,000 fulltime equivalent positions, he said.
Mr Cull was asked to speak at the function by Volunteering
Otago, which organised the morning tea.
Manager Anna Clere was delighted about 100 people attended,
but said the number represented "the tiniest tip of the
iceberg'' in terms of all volunteers throughout the region.
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