Winners of the Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards were celebrated at a lively and colourful event on the marae at Te Papa.

‘It’s a great honour. Thank you …’ was how Shirley Cressy, the CEO of Earthlink Incorporated ended her inspiring speech after receiving the Supreme Award at the 2015 Wellington Regional Airport Community Awards. The Awards were presented on 10 November during a colourful dinner at Te Papa.

Earthlink – Supreme Award winner

Earthlink is based in Lower Hutt. It focuses on social, environmental and economic sustainability, supporting clients coping with mental health or addiction on their pathway towards sustainable employment. This year they established Earthlink Apparel which has developed a range of up-cycled children’s clothing and a new range of women’s wear Space Between. This began as an innovative pilot project and expanded to turn approximately 36,800 used corporate garments (about 25,000 tonnes of fabric) into clothing rather than it going into a landfill.

‘We were really impressed with the dedication of Earthlink to supporting their clients with mental health issues, whilst also developing innovative programmes that are making a positive impact on the wider community and environmental sustainability,’ said Steve Sanderson, Chief Executive of Wellington Airport.

Earthlink will represent the Wellington region at the Trustpower National Community Awards.

From left: Shirley Cressy with representatives from Earthlink receives the Supreme Award from Jan Dowland, Chair of WCT and Steve Sanderson, CE of Wellington Airport. (Photo: Mark Tantrum)

Supreme Award finalists

There were 5 groups from around the region vying for the Supreme Award. Find out more about their life-changing work in these short videos.

Earthlink (Youtube, 2:40)

Kapiti Coast United Football Club (Youtube, 2:41)

Virtuoso Strings Charitable Trust (Youtube, 2:49)

Expressions Whirinaki Arts and Entertainment Centre Volunteers (Youtube, 2:47)

Letting Space (Youtube, 2:41)

The first Rising Star Award

This year a new award for emerging groups, the Rising Star Award, was presented to The Shed Project from Kapiti.

The project has been going for just over a year and is based in the Old Statue Bargain Barn in Paraparaumu. It provides educational, employment and social opportunities for young adults who have an intellectual disability or who have left the state education system. To generate income, they make and sell wooden items and also operate a charity store.

The Rising Star Award was introduced this year to recognise the amazing new initiatives that are happening in communities across our region. Mark Cassidy, CEO of Wellington Community Trust noted, ‘It is inspiring to see new groups taking positive action about issues that affect the wellbeing of their families and whānau. We are pleased to be able to support their work through the Awards.’

Denis Wood of The Shed Project receives the Award from Jan Dowland and Steve Sanderson (Photo: Mark Tantrum)