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Paekakariki Surf Lifeguards

  • We've done it!!

      10 May 2026

    Well team, we’ve done it. I’m delighted to share that at last night’s prizegiving Club Chair Matt announced that thanks to the Sargood Trust and SLSNZ, we now have enough money to finish our building fit out, and that will happen over the winter.

    Thanks so much for your contribution. As 1913 Club Members and regular givers, you've contributed over $50,000 to the building. Amazing! We’ll have something special to acknowledge you at the bar when it opens.

    We’ll keep this page open to make it easy for people to donate in the future, but you’re welcome to stop any regular contributions.

    For now, let’s celebrate what’s possible when a community works together, and we’ll see you at the beach!

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  • So close... Only 250k to go!

      31 January 2026
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    It’s been a while between updates on this page but there has been no shortage of action!

    Thanks to our loyal regular givealittle community, our one-off donors and people like James, who literally ran a fundraiser – he ran from home in Raumati Beach to work in Wellington, raising $435 in sponsorship along the way. Go James!

    We are delighted to share that we’ve started using our building. It’s not yet finished but thanks to support from clubbies and local businesses, we are now operating out of most of our downstairs, plus the patrol tower. That means we’ve been able to host surf events for the first time in years. This season we’ve seen a craft endurance race, the Central Region Champs, and the North Island IRBs. The club has record numbers of nippers and little nippers, so we’re looking forward to strong numbers of lifeguards in the years ahead.

    We’re also back running beach education for local school children, and have run a couple of sessions with the Halberg foundation making the beach and water accessible for any level of ability.

    We’re now on the last push for the remaining $250k to finish the upstairs. As Matt & Karen shared in this article from The Post, finishing the upstairs spaces will allow the building to be used as a true community facility. We can’t wait to reach that point and acknowledge our 1913 Club Members with something special at the bar!

    https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360936252/paekakariki-surf-club-still-short-250k-new-building-fit-out

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  • Paekākāriki Surf Lifeguards ready for a challenging patrol season

      21 October 2024
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    Kapiti News covered yesterday's open day in beautiful conditions at the beach. Check out the article for some building photos. As Matt reports, we still need around $1m to fully finish construction. We're truly grateful to our givealittle supporters who have donated over $40,000 so far.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kapiti-news/news/paekakariki-surf-lifeguards-ready-for-a-challenging-patrol-season/DPL4IEH72RAT5KABMPOFU2SLA4/

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  • Building update | Legacy Wall

      16 June 2024
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    If you've walked past the surf club site in the last few weeks you'll have seen huge progress made. The Mills-Albert Limited team have been focused on clearing sand from the build platform, preparing it for the gravel raft foundation. They have also finished installing the driveway trucks etc will use during the course of the project. This will be upgraded to a more permanent grade at the cessation of the project.

    Homestead Construction Ltd will be arriving on site soon and June 10th their factory will start pouring our tilt slab concrete walls! They’ll later be trucked on to site.

    We've also launched the legacy wall fundraiser (https://paekakarikisurflifeguards.store/) where supporters can buy a tile to feature on our legacy wall. We are so appreciative of our regular contributors here on givealittle and plan to acknowledge you in a permanent way when the club is complete, however if you would like recognition with a tile instead please get in touch with givealittle coordinator sarah on sarahsherriff@mac.com. Either way, you're awesome!!

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  • Perfect day for our ground breaking and blessing

      10 March 2024
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    And the ground is officially broken! Life member Joost Brinck, with support from one of our youngest members Lexie Garton, turned the first sod on our build site on a beautiful Saturday morning. We can’t wait to get started!

    Our site will soon be handed over to Homestead Construction and Mills Albert (earthworks) and work should commence after Easter.

    Thanks to The Post for their coverage of our ceremony https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350204541/construction-starts-paekakarikis-new-surf-club and to you our generous supporters. We're still fundraising and appreciate every dollar!

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  • Ground breaking! You're invited this Saturday 9 March

      3 March 2024
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    A karakia and blessing by local iwi Ngāti Haumia will mark the groundbreaking of our new surf club building. We invite all members and supporters of the club to join us for a ceremony on Saturday 9 March at 9am. Morning tea to follow. We’ll be joined by Mayor Janet Holborow, representatives from Ngāti Haumia, and our build team.

    With our construction contract about to be signed we want to progress with site preparations as soon as we can.

    RSVP: Please RSVP to admin@pslg.co.nz by this Friday 8 March.

    Where: Building Site, Southern Entrance to QE Park, opposite the campground.

    Parking: On Wellington Road, Henare Street, in QE Park. Or park near the surf club and walk the track behind the old clubhouse to the build site.

    A huge amount of work has gone into bringing this project to life. In particular we would like to thank our management committee, build committee, fundraising committee, our funders and sponsors (that's you!), and of course the clubbies who breathe life into this club (even without a building!) We're still fundraising to complete the building so please continue to give generously, it is so much appreciated.

    We will begin preparing the site for the first stage of building, setting up fencing and embarking on earthworks. For more information about the build progress please check out our website.

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  • Our biggest WOOHOO yet!

      5 September 2023
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    🥳🥳 FUNDING MILESTONE REACHED! 🥳🥳

    Huge huge thank you to Surf Life Saving New Zealand who have today confirmed they're contributing $1.4m towards our new building project. Bringing us to a total of $3.8m funds raised to date.

    Thanks to them and people like you, our dedicated 1913 Club members, this means we now have enough funds in the bank to start the project and get it to closed in stage. At the closed in stage we'll be able to use this 'shell' to conduct lifeguarding services, but will still need another $1m to do the fit out (all the interior; kitchens, plumbing, carpets etc).

    If you or your business can contribute in-kind services, product or funding towards this important project please get in touch with our Fundraising Chair Karen Simpson-Warren Karen.Simpson@canoeracing.org.nz

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  • We're Over Half Way!

      17 August 2023
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    Great news! Thanks to a generous donation of $40,000 from Pub Charity, on top of funds raised at our recent Casino Night, and of course the ongoing support from our 1913 Club and Givealittle crew.... we're delighted to announce we're over halfway to our funding goal.

    Although it's still cold and dark out there we've kicked off all of our senior training for the summer, and we're hopeful it will be the last one to operate out of containers in our temporary position at the beach. Stay tuned for more updates on the build very soon!

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  • Lotteries Funding!

      22 June 2023
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    We're absolutely over the moon to announce that the Lotteries Community Facilities Fund has allocated us $500,000 towards the build of our new clubrooms. It's incredibly generous and puts us a whole lot closer to breaking ground. Thank you so much to Lotteries! Woohooo!!!

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  • Resource consent, and more funds!

      25 May 2023

    We're delighted to share that we have resource consent to proceed with our new building project. Getting to this stage has been a huge amount of work for a very dedicated group of people. We look forward to acknowledging everyone's support when we open the new spot!

    In more great news, we're delighted to announce that NZCT has supported us with $200,000 towards the building. We are grateful for support that will allow us to continue to serve our community.

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  • Woohoo! Our first ONE MILLION DOLLAR funder!

      3 March 2023
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    We are VERY happy and excited to announce that we have secured the cornerstone funder for our new build project. We’re thrilled to have the support of Kāpiti Coast District Council who announced that they will contribute $1million towards the new building. This is the first major funding the club has received and with the $500,000 already raised through supporters like you, it enables us to push forward with the $4.5m build project. It’s still a long way until we’re in our new home and we will be pushing hard in the next 12 months to raise more money through community fundraising activities and other funders. If anyone can support the build please get in touch via our website or social media pages. And huge thanks to KCDC!

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  • Building Farewell 30 October 2022

      21 October 2022
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    We're gathering next weekend to formally farewell our old clubhouse. This is a major milestone in sorting the new building. We'll have plenty of media in attendance, drawing attention to the community services provided by our volunteers and our desperate need for funds for a new building to continue those services.

    Everyone's welcome to attend from 12.30pm. After the blessing there'll be a chance to say your own farewells, or enjoy our hospitality and live music while watching a full club training. Weather permitting we'll have IRBs, boats, craft and nippers out on the water.

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  • Radio New Zealand coverage of building closure

      5 September 2021

    Thanks to Jake McKee at Radio New Zealand for covering the latest update on our building - the current clubhouse has been closed due to structural concerns, leading to a risk there will be no surf lifeguards this summer.

    We're currently working to source temporary buildings to ensure we can patrol the beach, but it just makes our new build fundraising even more urgent.

    Thanks so much for your ongoing support!

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018809703/paekakariki-beach-may-go-without-lifeguards-this-summer

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  • Lease secured!

      17 July 2021
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    We've reached a huge milestone - the Greater Wellington Regional Council has granted a lease for the land where our new building is planned. That means it's all go for securing resource consent over the next two months, then breaking ground in 2022! Thanks for your support so far, it's hugely appreciated.

    Kapiti News wrote about this last week: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kapiti-news/news/lease-granted-in-principal-for-paekakariki-surf-lifeguards-new-clubrooms/W5CSB7Y4GPP76JXUN25FCYLQ4I/

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