Stories from Crisis: Matt

“In 2022, my town Nelson was hit by a one-in-100 year flood. The flooding affected quite a lot of our community. A lot of people out there were struggling to get support for the clean up. I knew that more could be done. I contacted my school and a few other mates to see if we could get a few people over to help out. We started reaching out to different organisations around the Nelson region and nationally. I sent an enquiry over to SVA, Sam got back to me and said they were really keen to do something.

From there, it was pretty much just a whirlwind. We used SVA sources to get social media posts out. I started posting on community Facebook pages and reaching out to people who were affected to see what specific work they needed done. We managed to get a contact from Civil Defence in Nelson and we had some incredible support from the UC SVA Club. We formulated our response and got mechanisms in place. We were surprised with the amount of addresses we got through, which was particularly due to the number of people who turned up - around 80-90 total over two weekends. 

Volunteering is certainly the most rewarding thing you can do. Knowing that people are getting helped and the support they need. SVA is all about those young people getting started in the community, showing what it is to be a good citizen and showing a bit of community spirit as well.

We’ve seen the impact SVA has made and continues to make, but we need you to step up. Especially with the way the world is going with climate change. We never know when the next extreme weather event will happen.”