National Volunteer Week 2016

Volunteering is a rewarding way to make a difference in your community. Here is some information from Volunteering New Zealand on National Volunteer Week 2016.

Each year New Zealand celebrates National Volunteer Week to recognise and celebrate the vital contribution of New Zealand’s approximately 1.2 million volunteers to social development, the economy and the environment. This year, National Volunteer Week will be celebrated between Sunday 19 and Saturday 25 June 2016 and focuses on time through the following two sayings:

• Make time – Whai wha
• Thanks for making time – Kia ora mo tau whai wha

Through this campaign, Volunteering New Zealand hopes volunteers will be recognised for making time for their communities

Volunteering New Zealand

• Volunteering New Zealand website
• Like VolunteeringNZ on Facebook
• Follow VolunteeringNZ on Twitter

Local voluntary organisations

Volunteering Canterbury

Supports and promotes the work of volunteers and voluntary organisations. Search volunteering opportunities and register online.

Student Volunteer Army

SVA was set up following the quakes of 2010 and 2011. Its focus is on encouraging young people to volunteer.

Gap Filler

Gap Filler creates activities in the vacant sites of our city and welcomes volunteers.

Places to volunteer

Search the libraries’ CINCH database for information about volunteering and voluntary organisations.

International organisations

Red Cross

The international Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is the world’s largest humanitarian movement. New Zealand Red Cross has a team of over 20,000 volunteers. Volunteer for Red Cross New Zealand.

Volunteer Service Abroad

Volunteer Service Abroad sends Kiwis to aid projects in different parts of the world. They offer long-term, short-term and youth volunteering opportunities in countries within the Pacific, Asia and Africa.

WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms)

Volunteer on organic farms with people who are looking for volunteer help. In return for volunteer help, WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles. Wwoof.org has a directory of WWOOF networks in different countries.

More information

• Volunteering and service group websites in our Internet Gateway.
• Volunteering resources at your library.
• givUS New Zealand funding information for voluntary organisations from hundreds of schemes.
• giveME Search for awards, scholarships and grants for school, study, research or professional development.

International Volunteer Day is observed globally on 5 December.

Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night, 16 June 1816

 On 16 June 1816, trapped inside a villa by insatiable thunderstorms erupting across Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Lord Byron challenged his party of young bohemians to a ghost story competition.

That night, Byron’s challenge gave birth to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Polidori’s The Vampyre, the first great vampire novel. Combining drama and a stellar cast of popular writers, including Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood, this documentary explores one of the most significant moments in gothic history and its lasting effect on modern literature.

View the video Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night.

More about:

• Access Video
• Frankenstein
• Vampires
• Mary Shelley
• Lord Byron

Cool stuff from the selectors: Cars, recipes, and science

Exotic Barn Finds: Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin and More by Matthew Stone.

It seems everywhere you turn, on TV, at your library or favorite bookstore, Internet forums, and even social media, people are discovering and documenting the resurrection of old cars stored in barns, garages, and forgotten resting places.

Really?  I must be out of the loop –  but if you enjoy the idea of a rusted 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Bresia, found at the bottom of a lake that sold for $360,000 (US) even before any restoration was started – then this is the book for you.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

We don’t always equate being a scientist with being a great writer, however Hope Jahren manages to combine both skills to produce a book that has become a surprise bestseller. Lab Girl is a book about work and about love.

In Lab Girl, we see anew the complicated power of the natural world, and the power that can come from facing with bravery and conviction the challenge of discovering who you are.

Life Without a Recipe by Diana Abu-Jaber

I remember reading The Language of Baklava and feeling it was a nonfiction book written like a novel, and not being a big nonfiction reader this was perfect for me, and a few added recipes made it even better.  I am hoping for big things from Diana Abu-Jaber’s new book which promises:

struggles with cross-cultural values and how they shaped her coming of age and her culinary life, tracing her three marriages, her literary ambitions, and her midlife decision to become a parent.