At its meeting on the 5th of March, Pakuranga Rotary celebrated 25 years of running the Top Day Out Fishing Day. Originating from an idea Noel Holyoake had, the first event was organised by John Rofe who created the relationship with Coast Guard not only as major beneficiary of the proceeds but also as a key contributor to the event providing boats to ferry the fishos and safety on the water.
Peter Taylor (father figure to the event and Mr. Go to); Don Roberts, and Bruce Martin (17 years of sourcing boats and fisho sponsors); Geoff Roberts, Kelvin Davies, John MacMillan, Dawn Johnston, Ian Handisides (Mr Logistics); Del Johnston (money man); Les Hammond (IT guru); Chris Ward (new fisho sponsors), Roger Milne and Frank Burns, all received a fitting accolade from Pakuranga Rotary. Dawn Johnston was specially recognised for her contribution (and presented with flowers) for her catering work with Inner Wheel over most of the 25 years and the success of the fellowship this facilitated at the after functions.
Over 7500 lunches were made by Inner Wheel and a similar number of dinners served to about 800 private launches and their sponsors. About $10m worth of private launches were used in any one year and funds totaling more than $450k were raised and shared between Coast Guard and Pakuranga Rotary.
And the evening was not complete without a bit of humor from our own Maori Rotarian claiming tangata whenua rights over the Gulf for the day. As unfortunate as this year’s cancellation was due to the weather he had nevertheless managed to produce a 10 cm fish that he had pulled from somewhere on the day, stored in the boot of his car and then presented it on the night to claim all the prizes for biggest fish, most caught and average weight. Good try and excellent effort Ron.
For more information go to catchatopdayout.org