Like many service clubs, the Kiwanis Club of Taupō could do with a boost in membership – of young people in particular.

Longtime stalwarts John Purdon, who joined in 1973 just a couple of years after the club was formed, Rex Crenfeldt, a member since 1982 and Neville Joll, who joined in 1988, said, while service clubs were shrinking nationwide they still had a role to play in society.

Joll: “You’ve only got to listen to the press – they’re trying to raise money for Starship, our number one children’s hospital… groups like us are the ones they look to.”

Over the years the club has assisted with St John Ambulance junior cadets and contributed to equipment for the Middlemore Hospital burns unit and heart monitors locally, he said.

It has also been instrumental in enhancing various local attractions with contributions towards lighting and seating.

On May 22 the Taupō club will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

It had undertaken numerous fundraising projects, said Crenfeldt, running the Acacia Bay to Taupō Fun Run, marshalling for the Taupō Harriers Club and the Round the Lake Cycle Challenge as well, of course, added Jool, “as many, many sausage sizzles”.

Even a Teddy Bears Picnic, now run by the Taupō Family Centre.

One of its major public achievements was installing lighting at Huka Falls downstream of the pedestrian bridge.

“Some people risked their lives to put those lights in, but we achieved it and then lost it,” said Purdon, as repeated vandalism of the lights – through people shooting them – or breaking into the coin-operated switchgear made them too expensive to maintain.

Another more long-lived project has been the town clock, recently repainted, which was originally erected near the town’s Memorial Hall and then moved when the Great Lake Centre was built.

The eyeball clock now resides in a corner of the Taupō Primary School grounds on Ruapehu St.

“That was quite a major construction,” said Purdon, “before that the faces were outside the Bank of New Zealand just as a clock on its veranda.”

Supporting science fairs has also been a project Kiwanis, both locally and throughout the country, have supported for years, said Joll.

Kiwanis in New Zealand started the concept initially and some clubs still ran their regional fairs.

“The Taupō Intermediate School still does a very good internal science fair, and we sponsor them getting from that to the Bay of Plenty regional finals,” he said.

Appropriately, club volunteers are dedicated to improving the lives of children and the community, through the organisation’s motto “Kiwanis serving the children of the world”.

Meeting nights, open to men and women of all ages, are on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at the Taupō Cosmopolitan Club.

The anniversary celebration is at Taupō’s Suncourt Hotel on Saturday, May 22, at 5.30pm where participants are expected to share stories and enjoy some friendship and fun. It will be preceded by a three-hour bus tour of local sights for visiting attendees.

It may even result in some new members to the club.

Purdon: “With a younger age group I can see it thriving.”

Credit:Stuff.co.nz