Hamilton City Council

The aim of the Innes Common parkour and exercise area project was to create a unique, free, outdoor space for all Hamiltonian's to enjoy. The project was completed as part of Hamilton City Council's playground programme and was delivered in partnership with Parkour NZ, Playground People, Fluhler Contracting and brodiehailwood. The completed area features a small play space, along with New Zealand's first dedicated parkour training area, a half basketball court and exercise area featuring the first of its kind equipment in New Zealand. 

How has your project benefitted the community?
The main goal of the Innes Common parkour and exercise area project was to create an all ages and abilities space where the community can spend time recreating for free. A 'play for all' approach was taken in the design of the Innes Common parkour and exercise area. Parkour NZ have told us that users from around the country have visited the park to train. The annual Hamilton parkour event HamJam 2019 utilised the newly created space and it is regularly used for parkour, calisthenics and exercise training classes. A visit on any day shows a wide variety of users enjoying this active space. 

Who are the key organisations that have collaborated on this opportunity/initiative/programme/project?
The Innes Common parkour and exercise area was designed and built in partnership with Parkour NZ, Playground People, Fluhler Contracting, brodiehailwood and Hamilton City Council. A previously donated public BBQ and shelters from Lions Club complements the area. Funding support was also received from Trust Waikato and WEL Energy Trust towards the project.

What was the positive outcome of collaborating with other organisations on this project?
A collaborative Project Team (made up of HCC, Fluhler Contracting and brodie hailwood) enabled a flexible approach to the design process to take place. Parkour NZ representatives led the design process for the parkour area. The parkour team also gave advice on location of seats, walls and paths to maximise the parkour experience outside of the dedicated parkour space. Feedback from the parkour team during the construction was that the Project Team 'really got it' in terms of listening to them and wanting the space to be as usable as possible. Playground People offer ongoing support to Hamilton City Council's playground programme. Working with Playground People to bring new Kompan exercise equipment to New Zealand resulted in the creation of a unique exercise area. Partnering with Fluhler Contracting and brodiehailwood allows for a unique design and build partnership. It ensures value for money and significant savings to be made. 

What positive results did your collaborative project achieve to help better sport and active recreation?
The project has not only achieved the aim of providing a much-needed all ages play space for the community, it has also added to an existing well-loved Hamilton park with visitors from across Hamilton and wider afield using the space. The partnership approach taken on this project allowed a unique, custom space to be developed. Innes Common had an existing ageing play space that had basic play equipment ‚Äì  swings, slide and a carousel. In the current Hamilton City Council 10 Year Plan, renewals funding was allocated to replace the existing play space. New capital funding was also allocated to upgrade the space into an active recreation space. Other park asset renewals also aligned with the project for things like paths and park furniture. The final result is an active space with something for everyone. 

Hamilton City Council

The project was to upgrade the existing skate park and play space at Melville Park in Hamilton. The aim of the project was to create a unique, exciting space that meets the needs of the park users. 

Where did the initiative take place?
Melville Park, Hamilton

What is unique about your approach to active spaces in sport and active recreation?
The project, funded through Hamilton City Council's 10 Year Plan, combined renewal and capital funding to replace the existing assets at the park while also extending and upgrading the space. The project resulted in an upgrade to the existing skate, basketball and play space. Hamilton City Council teamed up with Fluhler Contracting and Acid NZ to design and build the park. This approach allowed us to work closely with key stakeholders throughout the project. Htown Skate Project was a key partner in the project, working to ensure the voice of the Hamilton skate community was captured. To ensure we got it right, Council took a community led approach to design and engaged with people who use the space. Feedback received through community open days, design workshops and online feedback was used to develop the final design for the skate park and playground area.

How has your approach benefitted the community?
For a number of years, the Council received consistent feedback that Melville skatepark was in poor condition and was in need of major work.  There is also growing demand for improved skate facilities in Hamilton. Melville Park is one Hamilton's most well-known parks, due in large part to its historic skate bowl. The original bowl is much-loved and carries important memories for the skate community. This project saw the bowl refurbished to ensure it is continued to be skated and treasured for many years to come. Working with the community and skate advocacy group Htown Skate Project allowed us to create a unique space that caters to the needs of Hamilton's skate community but also the local park users. Installing a full size basketball court, shade, a public BBQ and additional play equipment has created a space for the community to enjoy.

What are some of the results and/or growth you have seen?
The refreshed park is busier than ever. Given the additional size and increased features and facilities, more users can be there at once and stay longer. The skate park allows for better progression of skate skills from beginner to advanced. The project resulted in a refreshed, multi-use skate and play space for the whole community to enjoy.  The full basketball court is important to the local community. A small multi-use concrete pump track was also installed as part of the project.  Lines of sight into the park have been significantly improved, making it much more visible from the road. Council has received positive feedback on the upgraded park from many users.  

Creating sets of dirt jumps for mountain and bmx bikes that can be ridden by beginners to experts and from 2yo upwards.

Where did the initiative take place?
It started way back in 2011 and the idea was to create a dirt jump park on a disused piece of ground the Taupo District Council leased to us. Many truckloads of dirt later we have a unique area for kids and adults of all ages to have a lot of fun and increase their skills dirt jumping.

What is unique about your approach to active spaces in sport and active recreation?
Well it is free to everyone and unique in the way that people can ride to their own abilities. It's not structured like traditional sports. It's a great form of play.

How has your approach benefitted the community?
It's given a lot of people from all over New Zealand a place to come to when they visit Taupo. It's given a lot of boys in particular, a place to come to and ride that may not want to do organised sport. People walking past always stop and watch and talk to the kids about what they are doing.

What are some of the results and/or growth you have seen?
The increase in rider numbers from 2yo to 60 plus riders has blown us all away. There is always huge numbers there on a fine weekend and many more use it during the week. Different groups have sessions there as well, eg: Kids Bike Taupo use it on Tuesdays. One very cool aspect is the way the kids take ownership for maintaining and grooming of the jumps. It never ceases to amaze me the rapid progress and skill progression that happens just because we have this facility in town. We have had 2 previous NZ Dirt Jump Championships held here with the third taking place on 5 Dec 2020. This brings in the best riders NZ has but we also hold a competition for novices and intermediates as well. As usual a big crowd is expected.

The FBG's - Fat Bottomed Girls & Guys NZ, don't JUST have fat bottoms. We're an inclusive group for 18+ Women and Men who may find the Gym an intimidating place, but still wish to be active. 

The FBG's are a member/admin run group with 90+ members in Cambridge. Each year we set the Urban Challenge which is the challenge to walk every street in Cambridge, in mapped out Sections, approx 5km per walk/section. in 2020 we have 40 mapped out Sections to walk, over a 7 month period. 

Where did the initiative take place?
All of the streets in Cambridge. And as our town grows, so will our sections as well as our member count. We also have extra walks for people to do, like Lake Te Koutu's ups and downs. The Velodrome walk is also very popular among our members, as there is the cafe on site.

What is unique about your approach to active spaces in sport and active recreation?
The Urban Challenge is unique in itself.  We're a small volunteer Admin run group, using a Facebook Group to connect our 90+ members to walks and events at different times. We make sure there is a group of at least six members for each walk, making sure there is safety and companionship.

Our Urban Challenge started just 2 weeks before the Covid lockdown started. So our small admin team very quickly decided we needed to keep morale up and spirits high, especially with our members who live alone.

We came up with the "isolation challenge", to encourage everyone to keep moving and to keep some of the competition that many of them thrive. We certainly didn't limit it to walking, we had members running and cycling as well as walking the empty streets. The morning and evening video chats became daily routine as well. The activity may be the main thing, but the friendships that have evolved from our group mean so much.

How has your approach benefitted the community?
We have been able to motivate people to get active that didn't feel comfortable in doing so before. Most of the FBG's are people that are newer to the area, so it's a wonderful way to make friends, get to know their new home town, as well as getting active.

Many of the members set personal goals, whether that be to lose weight, walk 1000kms or make friends. All of which have been achieved or very close to. The Urban Challenge - we have a ready-made goal for people, as well as encouraging them to make their own personal goals. We live in a beautiful, ever evolving town that is the perfect place to walk, exercise and explore. And a great place to meet new friends.

When the FBG's are out walking, there's a big group of purple shirts. It's hard to miss us, so we like to use that in helping with things like Daffodil Day, Pink Ribbon and various charity walks. The FBG's have also enjoyed getting out and collecting for causes eg. Pink Ribbon & Daffodil Day or hosting Pink Ribbon Breakfasts.

This also shows many people of different ages and sizes, out getting active and having fun. 
Most of our members are newer to Cambridge, so as well as motivating people to get active, they get out and make friends and explore the area.

What are some of the results and/or growth you have seen?
The growth of the group alone, has been amazing. Each year more and more amazing people join, making personal goals and achieving the goal of walking each street. 
The growth within the Members has been wonderful to watch too, seeing people reach weight goals or being able to walk up a big hill with ease. They motivate themselves and each other.

The growth of the group since 2017 has doubled, so the friendships, motivation and confidence among members has too. 

Danny has worked with This is ME promoting girls in sports offering free dive lessons, with exciting numbers taking up the offer. He has made contact with local immigration services offering free dive lessons to new immigrants who would likely never have had the chance to have a go. He offers his time free of charge so that the club does not financially suffer. It‚Äôs not only our divers he wants to see grow.......last year saw Danny arrange several of our parents and older divers to sit their NZ Dive Judge exams. We are so proud to say that Hamilton now has several NZ Level 1 accredited judges including Danny himself. 

What is unique about your approach to diversity and inclusion in sport and active recreation?
Danny is our Club Chairman, Coach, Fundraiser, Family Contact...... and just an all-round great guy. Danny’s charismatic personality sees him welcoming everyone with open arms and is seen at every dive session encouraging divers young and old. He is always mingling with parents and spectators alike, grabbing anyone that is just watching by encouraging them to give diving a go. Danny tirelessly spends hours promoting diving where-ever he can. He approaches schools, clubs, committees..... any opportunity he is always there promoting the virtues of diving.

Danny has formed a great relationship with the Hamilton Bombers Club where we host them every Friday night. This club has sadly not been able to use the dive pool previously without the supervision that Danny offers. This is a large group of adult men and women that would never have had the chance to show off their amazing bombing skills in a safe environment. It has been exciting to see this group grow and watch the children in the club spending time with their families imitating their whanau on the lower diving boards.

How has your approach benefitted the community?
In the past 3 years Danny has grown the club from just 3 competitive divers to reach nearly 100 just before Covid arrived. This is an amazing testament to his unwavering dedication to Waikato Diving. As a young club Danny has spent his own time both at Auckland and Wellington dive clubs looking at their facilities and structures to build our club to what it is today. This has allowed our divers to benefit from having the same facilities that are offered in the larger centres. He has recently secured and unused room at Waterworld and converted it into a dry land training room for the divers, so they can train comfortably and safely. Danny saw an opportunity to utilise this space not only for his divers but also invited Hamilton Aquatics swim team to also benefit from his hard work and share the room.

What are some of the results and/or impact you have seen?
Through Danny's commitment to our divers, Diving Waikato recently had 5 of its divers being selected to the NZ training team (pre-Covid while). Danny has not only provided top notch facilities for our Elite divers he is also very conscious of our up and coming divers and divers that just want to have a go. He has created new groups and goals that cater for everyone's abilities children and adults alike. While this means so much for work for Danny he always embraces it with enthusiasm and commitment.

Danny himself is not a diver, he has been seen making bets with our younger divers to jump in himself if they are apprehensive about a new dive. This has created great entertainment for the divers, parents and spectators. Danny has arranged 'train the parents' nights, for our younger divers. This has been a wonderful opportunity for our divers to train their parents and teach them what they have learnt. This has been an eye opener for many parents realising it is not as easy as their children make it look. Another brainstorm from Danny to have create an opportunity to get more people into the dive pool.

What we love about Danny is his inclusion of all, his selflessness approach to giving his time freely to give everyone and anyone the opportunity to at least try diving. Looking at the categories for the nominations for this year's awards, it was truly difficult to fit Danny into just one as we think he could take them all out!

Swimming

Gina is a role model for swimming in the Waikato with successes both in and out of the pool.  
She was recently awarded Emerging Swimming of the Year for the Aquaknights region in April 2020.  

At the recent New Zealand Short Course Championships in October 2020 she achieved:

• 7 Golds medals for the 17-18 year age group
• 2 Golds, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medal for the Open Age group.

At the recent New Zealand Secondary School meet in October 2020 she achieved:

• 5 Golds, 5 Silvers and 1 Bronze medal

Gina regularly volunteers her time as a technical official on pool deck, giving back to the sport she is so passionate about.  She also assists Swimming Waikato's Junior Pathway programme, encouraging and supporting Waikato's up and coming juniors, whilst role modelling the values and behaviours Swimming Waikato aspires its swimmers to have.                                                                      

This moment was taken of my son and his teammate, not  for celebrating a goal, but just celebrating in the moment.

This team is a team that has gelled right from the get go. They are a bunch of boys that have each others backs on and off the field. The team's diversity in cultures has brought them together and made them the team they are today. With the support of amazing coaches and families these kids were unbeaten during the 2020 season having 385 points for and 63 points against. They are a humble bunch of kids and made us laugh every time. We are super proud of their achievements this season. To take out the overall 13th grade and be the 1st Hamilton old boys team to do so and secure the Aaron Hopa Memorial trophy wow what a season to finish club rugby.

Tracey Hallam, Waikato Badminton's Coaching & Development Manager has offered amazing support and modernised learning experiences to a large number of participants this year. At each Covid-19 Alert Level, Tracey has skilfully utilised the complexities of technology to offer enjoyable coaching and training sessions over Zoom. These remote sessions were launched within the first week of lockdown, activating over 60 participants each week across our Development, Junior Representative, Junior Elite, Performance, and Senior Representative Squads. The sessions required minimal space, were primarily active and fun movements involving music, so participants were able to perform footwork and racket movements to the music with Tracey facilitating and coaching throughout each hour-long session. Tracey is technology-shy at most times but courageously stepped out of this shell to deliver live-streamed sessions, and even recorded additional instructional videos to Waikato Badminton's YouTube channel to share during Alert Level 3. Not only did participants and other coaches appreciate her leadership during Alert Levels 3 and 4, the badminton community was engaged and enjoyed following the progress and development of our participants as a result of this initiative. (Feel free to edit the attached footage of her coaching and endearing bloopers)

Our team played in the open C grade netball at Minogue Park every Saturday.

We've just had our final game and won going undefeated in our pool and we did a Tiktok to celebrate..

Last year we played in D grade and took that out so you can guarantee next year we will be testing the waters in B grade .

This video features our players, coach and manager.
We would practise this for 5 or 10 mins just to get warm before actually started training.

Hope you enjoy it

A challenge you can do anywhere anytime.  Staying active during lock down was so important. This challenge involved a series of different star jumps, these were normal, double, full and Mr T Star Jumps.

Rugby, Huntly

Allan Murray has been involved with HuntlyCOBRFC for 20+ Years in different roles within the Committee & A Sponsor Allan Murray Farm Services for Many Years. Supports the Players on Saturday's home & away whenever Possible, Good Club Man!

List the notable achievements the nominee has supported
Loyal Sponsor of the Club, Will be Present with a Blazer from the Club @ Prizegiving on the 10th October (Surprise for Him) however well deserved for His time & efforts towards Rugby in Huntly!

Describe the skills the nominee has used
Just A Good Club Man you enjoy having a Beer with within the Club, with Awesome People Person.