BNZ closed for the day

No point banging on the BNZ door today because they won't, or can't let you in. There's no-one home.

That's because most BNZ staff, 3200 of them around the country, abandoned their computers to work on 530 Closed For Good community projects.


BNZ staff doing their bit to help in the community. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

It's believed to be New Zealand's single biggest day of volunteering.

And it includes 21 projects here in Bay of Plenty, like sprucing up and maintenance at Papamoa Playcentre and Otumoetai Plunket, tidying the grounds at Waipuna Hospice, cleaning at the Whakatane Kiwi Trust, painting at the Opotiki SPCA and clearing vines from the foreshore at Cooney Reserve at Omokoroa.

'Community organisations provide vital services in their local area and they're always stretched for resources,” says BNZ CEO Anthony Healy.

'This is a small way we can leverage the scale of BNZ to help, whether it be by getting stuck in to maintenance, providing business guidance on marketing and budget plans to running financial literacy and scam savvy workshops.”

All BNZ staff have two volunteer days a year across every sector of the community, from supporting local schools or Plunket to helping with environmental clean-up efforts and running workshops at the Citizens Advice Bureau.

While the BNZ is closed for a day, business critical staff including call centre staff will still be working for urgent services, and all online and mobile banking services are available. For more information go to www.closedforgood.org

You may also like....

3 comments

Definition of Volunteer

Posted on 31-08-2016 21:00 | By yikes61

:a person who works for an organization without being paid. So my question is: are the BNZ staff paid for their day of working on worthy projects? The use of "volunteer" is lauded on many and its use dilutes its true meaning on the many thousands of true volunteers.


Yikes

Posted on 01-09-2016 08:45 | By Politically Incorrect

That's a skeptical viewpoint. Technically it's correct, BNZ volunteer their staff to organisations - the organisations are not paying the 'volunteers'. BNZ might still pay their staff, but do not get the benefit so in part it's also a charitable donation. However, as you say, the many unpaid volunteers with no recompense from anywhere are certainly making a greater sacrifice, most sadly going unnoticed. That still doesn't mean this isn't a good thing though.


hang on a minute

Posted on 02-09-2016 15:05 | By old trucker

They do get paid on this day from bank, so its a paid volunteer.


Leave a Comment


You must be logged in to make a comment.