Today marks International Volunteer Day, and one local volunteer who has made a difference in her community after being a newcomer. 

Tracy Blackwell describes herself as a “people person” and that is immediately obvious on meeting this busy volunteer, who relocated to Central Otago from Morrinsville with her husband earlier this year.

A good friend had previously moved from Auckland and bought a property in Alexandra that included a heritage mud cottage, which Tracy’s husband “fell in love with”. 

He suggested that he and Tracy help renovate the cottage and use it as an escape from Morrinsville.

After several visits, once the cottage renovations were completed, they had fallen in love with the area also, so rented a property in Clyde. 

They began spending so much time there that their son asked why they didn’t simply move.

“We’d met so many people down here and such a wonderful group of people, it just felt the right thing to do,” Tracy says. 

“Where we live in Clyde, we know our neighbours, and they’re all really lovely and it’s a great community and we all look out for each other.”

It was friends, also new to the area, who suggested Tracy might like to volunteer at Central Cinema Alexandra.

“A lot of us are real movie buffs. I like the cinema, I like movies, and I thought it would be really fascinating to see behind the scenes.

She originally became part of the marketing team, as she has filled that and other roles for “20-odd” years on a national scale for an organisation that deals, confidentially, with struggling families. 

In addition to working in marketing for the cinema, she joined the cinema’s executive committee as well, overseeing the membership portfolio.

Tracy first became involved with volunteering as a young mother when her son became involved with 10-pin bowling and played in international squads. 

She says she has grown immensely as a person through her volunteer work.

“I get great pleasure out of it.

“I’m interested in people and in different things, so I think it’s just a natural flow on for me. The volunteer work that I do always involves people.

“It fills my cup up and it’s good for the soul. It’s nice to be able to give back to people with no condition or need to have anything come back to you.”

Her self-esteem, confidence and self-worth have grown through volunteering, she says, and she has become both more positive in her own life and more accepting of other people from all walks of life.

Tracy is proudest of being able to make a difference in the lives of others in her other volunteer role, and in giving back to her chosen community through her work with Alexandra Central Cinema.

“I get a real buzz with the cinema. We recently had a meet-and-greet with Sam Neill [who is patron of the community-owned cinema], and we had a Sam Neill retrospective, and they were both so successful.”

She is only one of 50 to 60 volunteers involved with the cinema, whose shared goal is to make it the heart of the community.

Covid-19 restrictions have made that goal more challenging of late, but has not slowed their enthusiasm any, and Tracy says the membership sub-committee has “exciting new things” planned for members. 

A larger and lasting challenge is to grow the demographic of cinemagoers, as many residents aged under 40 did not grow up going to the cinema regularly.

Asked if she would recommend volunteering to others, Tracy responds with an emphatic “do it!”

“Give it a go. Don’t be afraid even if you don’t have all of the skills that you think you need, because I’ve learnt on the job.

“It’s like the cinema here, we all help one another and if you get overwhelmed, you ask for help and someone will be there to help you.”

If you’re unsure where you would like to contribute, Volunteer South can discuss your skills and goals for volunteering and help make the perfect match. See more roles online here.

Volunteer South is a charitable trust that engages and supports both tūao volunteers and volunteers involving organisations and community groups in the Southern region of Aotearoa New Zealand.

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