Local volunteer recognised for Hospice work

A longtime Devonport local was recognised during the recent National Volunteers Week for her 15 years of service for Harbour Hospice.

Sheila Copus first saw the benefits of volunteering when her husband was sick and being cared for by hospice staff. Copus felt she needed to do her bit to give back.

Although she now volunteers at the Hospice Shop in Devonport, she previously served as a receptionist at Harbour Hospice in Milford.

After a couple years of volunteering on weekends while she was still working as a personal assistant, Copus decided to offer her services to the Devonport store once she retired.

“I thought, I’m a Devonport person, I might as well work in Devonport.”

National Volunteer Week ran 18-24 June, with Harbour Hospice giving long-service awards to 125 volunteers for periods of service of up to 35 years.

Harbour Hospice chief executive Jan Nichols said the awards are an opportunity to thank the volunteers for their “dedication, hard work and loyalty.”

Copus and the other shop volunteers switch between sorting and pricing items in the back of the store and serving customers at the front.

She doesn’t have a preference for either, as her favourite part of the gig is “the people I work with”.

The shop gets a good variety of items that come through and there are some “real treasures from time to time,” Copus said.

Fifteen years of volunteering has snuck up on her. “I wouldnt’ve even thought about it really, but I guess it’s nice to be recognised.”

When she’s not sorting items or helping customers, Copus can be found playing petanque or bowls at Stanley Bay or perhaps tramping on one of New Zealand’s Great Walks – she’s done nearly all of them.

I am shocked and mystified by the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board’s decision to completely defund both the Devonport Peninsula Trust and the Takapuna North Community Trust (which covers from Takapuna to Sunnynook).

The two trusts have had a relationship with council spanning decades, delivering a myriad of successful community programmes serving everyone from babies to the elderly, and across every social, economic, and cultural demographic. They provide significant bang for a pretty modest buck.

The city’s financial woes have been well publicised – so some cuts were expected.What was not expected was that the local board would strip all funding from the two community trusts, and use it to set up two new ‘community activator’ roles – a sole person based in Sunnynook, and another in Devonport.