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."
