Red Frog volunteers, a regular sight at Wānaka’s New Year events, are being celebrated this week as part of National Volunteer Week (June 16-22).

The young volunteers have been on hand across New Zealand since 2008, helping people stay safe at various events and festivals by offering ‘chill-out’ zones, free food and water and first response teams.

Last year, through a range of programmes and activations, 350 Red Frogs volunteers helped safeguard more than 275,000 young people. 

In Wānaka alone the Red Frogs attended three nights of New Year’s events in the CBD, and two nights at the Cardrona Valley’s Rhythm & Alps festival.

Red Frogs volunteers handed out more than 3,000 pancakes in the Wānaka area while safeguarding young people last year.

Red Frogs NZ national director Ray Thomson told the Wānaka App the volunteers supported 28,000 young people in Wānaka during that period, contributing 793 volunteer hours.

They had 8,820 interactions with young people, and provided extra care and support to 69 of those.

Forty-eight kilograms of Red Frog lollies (which the volunteers are named after) were handed out, he said, as well as 5,817 cups of water and more than 3,000 pancakes.

“The Red Froggers themselves are the key to the organisation's ability to serve young Kiwis for the past 16 years,” he said.

“Red Frogs volunteers are the backbone of what we do. They can flip thousands of pancakes for hours on end, hand out litres of water without complaint, rack up thousands of steps walking people to safety and their vomit-catching skills will put any ninja to shame.”

National Volunteer Week’s theme this year is Whiria te tangata, which means ‘weave the people together’.

“That's what Red Frogs volunteers do. Without them our work would not be possible,” Ray said.

PHOTOS: Shannon Thomson/Red Frogs NZ