Celebrating our volunteers

Published: 17/06/2025 | Volunteer, Public campaign | National

This week is Te Wiki Tūao ā-Motu National Volunteer Week (15 – 21 June), and a chance for us to recognise and celebrate our Fire and Emergency volunteers, their whānau, employers, supporters and all those who work alongside them.

More than 11,800 people generously give their time to volunteer as firefighters, operational support, medical first responders and brigade support. Volunteers are a big part of the team, which includes career firefighters, trainers, our communication centres, administration and support staff.

Volunteers take time out from their families, their jobs and their lives to help keep our communities safe. While volunteering is rewarding, it isn’t easy – volunteers often miss out on many special occasions so they can fight fires and respond to medical emergencies, motor vehicle accidents, weather events, natural disasters and deliver community risk reduction programmes. Thank you for your continued dedication and service – the country is safer because of the work you do.

This year’s campaign theme is Whiria te tāngata – Weave the people together. The focus of this campaign is to celebrate the collective contribution of our volunteers. While you’re out across the motu, you may see or hear our targeted media campaign, focusing on highlighting how valuable they are as a team in their communities. We will be encouraging the public to thank our volunteers and to raise awareness of the role they play in keeping our communities safe.

Help us celebrate volunteers

We want all our volunteers to feel valued. That’s why this National Volunteer Week we’re encouraging you thank our volunteer brigades. You can do this in various ways including:

visit your volunteer brigade to say thank you – it’s so simple but can mean a lot

look out for our posts on Fire and Emergency’s Facebook and Instagram and share them across your own social media

you can create your own ‘thank you’ message by using our social media tile, using the hashtag #NVW2025. You can find all resources, including the social media tile, here.

Keep an eye out for our campaign and get involved where you can. If you get any pictures from the week, please send these through to communications@fireandemergency.nz.