Waihi Community Vision

When the Community of the Year awards competition was announced in November, the Waihi Ward Committee decided
it would like to nominate Waihi for an award. Councillor Mary Carmine was delegated to put together a nomination on behalf of the Ward. It became apparent, when all the criteria were looked at, that the organisers of the competition were rather looking at a particular organisation within a community so the focus went on to nominating the Waihi Community Vision.

This group was chosen because of its unusual structure and the achievements that have come out of it and its offshoot organisations such as Sport ‘n’ Action, Creative Waihi, Waihi Heritage Vision and the social development group, not to mention the Vision Trust, which is charged with implementing the ideas that come out of the Waihi Community Vision.  All these represent a huge impact on the Waihi community as the various groups interact with existing organisations such as Go Waihi to achieve tremendous outcomes for the community. When the nomination was complete it looked good enough to do well in the competition.

The judges thought so too and so Waihi Community Vision has made the finals of the competition. Hauraki and the Waihi Ward are very proud that we have such a vibrant community that is prepared to rise to the challenge of trying economic times and to look forward to planning a bright future. Although the nomination was for the Waihi Community Vision, the Ward sees it as a nomination for the whole town and wider community of Waihi.

The final awards night is to be held on the 3rd February in Auckland when we will find out who has won the overall competition but until then it is sufficient to know that Waihi and its Waihi Community Vision have been judged in the top ten communities in the country. Waihi people would probably say, “Well, we knew that anyway."