Tamahere Forum editor Philippa Stevenson heads to the Solomon Islands early next month to put her journalism skills to use as a Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) volunteer.

Stevenson, who founded and has run Tamahere Forum for 10 years, will spend six months in the Solomons’ capital Honiara as a newsroom and editorial adviser for a small, independent newspaper publisher.

The former NZ Herald and Waikato Times journalist said she was thrilled to have the opportunity to volunteer with VSA.

When long time Tamahere man Dallas Fisher received an “official-looking” letter in the post, his wife thought it was a parking fine he hadn’t paid.

It was important – but it wasn’t a parking fine.

Fisher, who chairs the Tamahere Community Committee, has been recognised in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

It all began with a lunchtime presentation called “Have You Heard of the Internet”.

It was 1995. The presentation featured a mock website on skin conditions.

Afterwards, audience member and Tamahere resident Dr Amanda Oakley approached the presenters.

Tamahere resident and Miss Universe contender Ella Morgan aims to bust the stereotypes around beauty pageants.

The 18-year-old is in her second year at the University of Waikato, studying political science and public policy, and is passionate about social justice.

She also runs a dance school, teaching classes in Tamahaere, which she has done since the age of 14.

Work is underway on a major, 100m extension of the Tamahere Reserve’s network of boardwalks.

Funded by a $13,000 grant from the Waikato District Community Wellbeing Trust, the hard work of lugging tonnes of timber on site is being done by local youngsters.

The group, pictured, are transporting the timber by hand and on wheelbarrows in the challenging terrain for the boardwalk.

Tamahere’s Angie Millar, the architect of the successful fundraising Divine Eats cookbook has been awarded a ‘local hero’ award in the annual Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards.

Millar was one of 12 Waikato people to receive a local hero award tonight at the first of 16 regional ceremonies to be held across New Zealand recognising the achievements of 350 Kiwis.

Millar was inspired to put forward the idea of a cookbook to help raise funds for a new swimming pool for Tamahere School in 2015 after seeing a 1992 cookbook, which was also a school fundraiser.

A hi-tech rural services company co-founded by Tamahere man Russell Gibbs has taken out the innovation award in the annual Westpac Waikato Business Awards.

Tag IT Technologies’ HALO wi-fi system allows farmers to monitor and control their farm effluent systems remotely.

HALO can also be used to monitor water meters, tank levels, milking systems and milk vats.

The Tamahere Reserve’s rubbish burden is significantly lighter thanks to St Peters School student Ollie McGahey.

Ollie undertook a school project to investigate the rubbish around Tamahere and how the community might address the problem.

He soon found that one way to tackle the problem was to get stuck in himself.

Christine Pickering lived a life of service to her family, her community, her church, and to many New Zealanders she did not know, and would never meet.

Hers was a way of living that many today would see as quaintly old-fashioned and out-of-step with the neo-liberal zeitgeist of the “individual before others” so prevalent in modern society.

Her community work should probably not be measured in money, but it is true that Christine helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars over more than four decades for a range of charities.

Tamahere’s Sue Pickering was a Francophile of the first order – she had a lifelong love affair with the republic, and spoke the language with such fluent ease even native French speakers were often confused into trying to pin down her dialect to a part of France.

Sue grew up in Auckland near One Tree Hill with her sister Mary and brother Jim. She went to St Cuthbert’s and then on to Auckland University, where she studied English and French.