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I grew up in a small town with a massive community spirit, and that spirit lives on to this day.
For generations, the backbone of our district has been its clubs, community groups and volunteers.
Local people have put their hands up, given their time and worked together to host hundreds of events, build facilities and create opportunities that have shaped our district.
But are we seeing signs that the model that has sustained these organisations and assets for generations is coming under pressure?
Across our district, clubs and community groups are facing increasing costs while struggling to find the next generation of volunteers.
It isn’t uncommon to see the same name sitting on four or five committees.
Many groups have an ageing membership, while younger people juggling work, family and increasing living costs have less disposable time.
The Tuapeka Aquatic Centre is a good example.
This community-owned facility has recently been revalued at $14.2 million.
That sounds like a fantastic asset for our community to own, and it is, but the increased valuation has contributed to its annual insurance cost rising by about $20,000.
That is another $20,000 to find for a facility that wasn’t covering its operating costs — through memberships — before the increase.
Rates, chemicals, labour and other running costs have also risen.
The obvious answer might be increasing membership and user fees, but there is a limit.
These facilities exist for the community.
Raising fees to a level where local families can no longer afford to use them is counter-intuitive to why they were built in the first place.
So when the numbers don’t add up, who makes up the difference?
Increasingly, the answer is volunteers: fundraising, organising events, chasing sponsorship and spending hours applying for grants.
And this isn’t just an Aquatic Centre problem, nor is it only about maintaining facilities.
Many clubs and community groups face a different but equally important challenge — finding people willing to step in and eventually take over from those who have kept them going for years.
Many of these facilities, clubs and groups were established through enormous community effort, at a time when costs were lower and more willing people were available to volunteer.
Today, a smaller group is being asked to raise large amounts of money, while carrying the workload required to keep them going.
It leaves me wondering what the future looks like, if costs continue to rise and the pool of volunteers continues to shrink.
How long can we rely on the same people to fundraise, apply for grants, sit on committees and carry the administrative workload?
And as one generation of volunteers gets older, will there be enough people willing to step in and share the load?
Building these facilities, groups and clubs was an incredible achievement.
Keeping them running may prove to be just as big a challenge.