Ray White Paraparaumu were proud sponsors of the Kapiti Boating Club fishing competition held over the weekend of the 22-23 March – an event which helped to raise vital finds for their local CoastGuard.
The Kapiti Boating Club’s objective is to promote, establish, foster and assist the pursuits of boating, sailing, fishing and water sports of all kinds whilst developing goodwill, fellowship and knowledge of safe practices amongst the public – and the fishing competition certainly went a long way towards achieving this! With a few of the Ray White Paraparaumu team already club members, and keen fisherman, the office had two boat-loads of competitors entered to the fishing competition. Following each day of the 2-day competition all fish caught were donated and auctioned off with all proceeds going towards Kapiti Coastguard, and Paulane McLean from Ray White Paraparaumu took to the stage as chief auctioneer.
As the primary maritime search and rescue service, Coastguard NZ is here to make New Zealand’s waterways a safer place for boaties – with 85% of their funding coming from donations and local community support. It is donations like these from the fishing competition that help to keep their vessels in the water. There are currently 71 Coastguard Units located across the country, and since 1976 most of these Coastguard units have been independently established by communities concerned with the lack of available marine safety. Nationally Coastguard are supported by some by more than 2,465 dedicated brave volunteers – who have access to 78 dedicated search and rescue vessels in their fleet. We’re proud to say that the event raised $4,500 for Coastguard, and the funds were being put towards the much needed upgrade of the Kapiti Coastguard rescue boat.
“Because some of our staff are club members and many are keen fishermen, we thought it a great community event to be part of. The Kapiti Coastguard rely solely on donations to operate therefore it was fantastic to be able to run the auction with all proceeds going towards this worthy cause. It could be that one of us may need their help in the future if we were to run into trouble out in the ocean! … It so happened, that during the auction, they were called out to rescue a group who’s motor had broken down and were unable to get back to shore.” Rachael Steinmetz of Ray White Paraparaumu tells us.
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