Wanaka resident Janine Taylor has scooped a regional award which was created over a decade ago in memory of another local.

The Bill King Award was set up by the Dunedin RSA [Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association] Welfare Trust in conjunction with the Upper Clutha community and RSA in 2010 in recognition of the work of the late Bill King, a prominent local who gave his time to many causes in the Upper Clutha.

Each year the Bill King Award goes to a worthy volunteer living in Otago, and this year’s recipient is a busy volunteer who set up Outreach Therapy Pets in Wanaka and now manages a team of around 35 volunteers and their canine companions.

Outreach Therapy Pets is a community service programme delivered by St John in which volunteers share their animal companions with those who live in rest homes, hospitals, rehabilitation units, healthcare facilities and schools throughout New Zealand, helping enhance those people’s lives.

Janine was nominated for the award by RSA member and trustee Lyal Cocks, who said she was “one of the most humble volunteers you would ever meet”.

Like to volunteer? See Volunteer in your Wanaka App

Janine became the team leader for the programme when she lived in Kerikeri, a role she held for seven years, and she said she was “horrified” to find the programme wasn’t established here when she moved to Wanaka.

She set up the Wanaka branch in 2015 and now the busy programme works with a variety of groups and is most well known for its ‘reading to dogs’ programme.

“We go into the local primary schools and children practice reading to the dogs,” Janine said. “The dogs thrive on the attention they get. They can lie next to a child who is patting them while they read.”

They also visit elderly people living in rest homes, among other groups, and Janine says the dogs are wonderful icebreakers: “They have so much love to give people.”

Janine will receive a $500 New World voucher and a framed certificate, Lyal said.

Recipients of the Bill King Award do not need to be RSA members; the award can go to any volunteer in the region.

“There are a lot of people out in the community doing volunteer work, and it's fortunate that the RSA can recognise them,” Lyal said.

Janine was also named in the 2020 Order of St John Honour List for her work with Outreach Therapy Pets.

PHOTO: Wanaka App