Volunteer Opportunities

Our website, our facebook page and our newsletter could use your help! We would love to give you the essence of a news story for you to fashion into a website news item, an update to a webpage, a newsletter story and or a facebook post.

Read on full page .............. Are you curious?  Do you love to share stories and photos?  Are you keen to encourage actions that would help protect penguins and encourage donations?  Are you familiar with facebook and perhaps basic website editing (we use WordPress) or newsletters (we use something similar to MailChimp)? We would love your help!  Sharing our news and sharing our messages is fundamental to what we do, but sometimes we can be overtaken by all the doing rather than talking about what we do! We have a news sharing hierarchy - from a quick facebook post via web and newsletter content up to media releases to national news contacts - and we would love someone to come and help or perhaps lead it. Please get in touch via info@westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz or phone our Manager, Inger, for a chat on 3 755 8600.

This is an absolutely critical function for the trust and could take many forms. Seeking donations or sponsorships, writing letters or thanks, holding an event or running a raffle - up to you!

Read on full page .............. This is an absolutely critical function for the trust, it's endless and sometimes frustrating and disappointing, perhaps when carefully worded funding applications fail.  But, with funding support apparently gone from DOC, it's more important and more urgent than ever. Fundraising can fill people with dread, especially when asking for donations or sponsorship.  And yet the joy of the fundraiser is to connect a cause to someone who didn't know the cause existed and would love to help.  Instead of 'if you don't ask, you don't get', it's more like 'if you don't ask, how will they know you need it?'. And we need donations and sponsorship now and always to maintain the valuable and valued work that we do for penguins, other seabirds, and their habitat in our region - on land and at sea. Fundraising can take many forms - donations at an event, via a donation box, via credit card on a website or via direct bank payment; grants that may need a short letter or a huge application process; finding and keeping a sponsor that shares our vision; adding the trust to a will; doing an event for a chosen charity, perhaps a race; a raffle table ... and no doubt many more - it's up to you! If you can help with any of these, we would welcome your contribution, you could be our guardian angel. Please get in touch via info@westcoastpenguintrust.org.nz, or pick up the phone to our Manager, Inger, 3 755 8600 Thank you very much

DOC has published an excellent practical guide to trapping and find links to groups that are working to protect native species on the Coast.

DOC has published an excellent practical guide to trapping. Find out more and download the guide here. The guide offers expert guidance to:

• identify and target predators
• spot and monitor predator habitats
• understand predator behaviour
• understand and use the most effective control methods.

In the Punakaiki - Barrytown area, a local group have established the Coast Road Dawn Chorus trapping programme and invite you to become involved. Find out more on their facebook page here. In the Taramakau, Camerons, Paroa area, the Guardians group have been trapping for many years to protect coastal birds and are always keen to have new members for their many restoration projects. Find out more on their facebook page here. If you need some small rat trap tunnels for domestic rat traps, we have spares - get in touch mailto:info@bluepenguin.org.nz And there are some handy youtube videos from DOC about trapping with DOC200 traps:

One of these might be perfect for you! Most will be helpful for us, so have a look ...

Are you keen to do something useful for a group like ours?  Would you like to contribute to conservation by volunteering for the West Coast Penguin Trust? Often when we get offers to volunteer, people are looking to handle penguins.  We aim to avoid handling penguins and field work is often specialised and unsuitable for volunteers. But there are heaps of other ways in which you could get involved! Exult, an organisation that helps non-profits in NZ, has produced a list of 99 volunteer roles as well as a poster of 24 bite sized volunteer tasks. Some might not quite fit us, but perhaps they'll fit another group in need of your time and skills. Please have a look and we'd love to hear from you if you can help with these kind of things, or perhaps something that neither Exult or our Trust have thought of yet! 1 - 99 Volunteer Roles 24 Bite Sized Volunteer Tasks Have a look and then get in touch!

Store and then package and post fundraising items when ordered - t-shirts, reusable bags, keyrings etc ....

The Trust purchases a variety of items to sell with the combined objective of raising awareness and fundraising. For example, we have t-shirts, reusable bags, pin brooches and bumper stickers among other things.  We take them to community market events which provides an opportunity to chat with people about our work and for them to purchase something of value, supporting our projects at the same time. At present, due to space constraints, these items are stored away from our office; requests to purchase items are also rare.  When an order does come in, it means travelling to the store, finding the right size if appropriate, packaging and getting it in the post.  It really isn't making sense to do that at the moment! But with your help, it could. Could you keep a store of items, perhaps a couple of boxes, in a safe dry place and then respond to any requests for them to be posted?  Perhaps even help us promote them so that we sell more and make these items serve us better in terms of fundraising? Please get in touch if you could help! Thank you very much.

Firewood is a great draw and we'd need organisers, people to sit at a raffle table ...

Firewood is a great draw for a community fundraiser raffle so if you could help provide a trailer load of firewood for us to raffle, that would be an enormous help! We would also need help to organise the raffle table - and this could be at any one of the supermarkets on the coast, with their approval of course! Perhaps you'd be willing to sit at the raffle table for an hour. And there are countless other ways to raise money - it's having the creativity and/or the time! Your help could be invaluable - please get in touch if you can help. info@bluepenguin.org.nz

Not so much as a job, just a walk on the beach!

Although we aim to do an annual count, we'd love you to record sign of blue penguins at any time of year - usually tracks, but also calls or live or sadly dead penguins.  It's invaluable to have current records of the presence of penguins.  Please have a look at our webpage to find out how to get involved. Blue Penguin Count