ROWING CLUB’S ANNUAL BOTTLE DRIVE SATURDAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 31, 11 December 1950, Page 5

ROWING CLUB’S ANNUAL BOTTLE DRIVE SATURDAY

The annual bottle drive of the Whakatane Rowing Club, a function that has come to be regarded in the borough and Ohope as an annual event, is to be held on Saturday. From about 9 a.m. all members will be manning trucks and will cover the whole borough, Ohope and nearby outlying centres gathering bottles and old paper. The proceeds from this drive will go towards maintaining the present high efficiency of one of Whakatane’s outstanding sporting bodies. Empty bottles of any description, with the accent on the familiar brown “marine,” will be accepted. In addition, clean old paper will be taken, and this will be a golden opportunity to empty cluttered cupboards and odd corners where paper nearly always collects. Much Public Support Organisation of the complete bottle drive as held by the club entails a lot of preliminary work. Trucks have to be obtained from public spirited citizens and such is the support that the club receives from a great number of people that it has never yet been short of trucks. The club provides petrol and each truck is allocated to a competent driver. Along with each truck about four other members are placed and it is their job to visit every home in the area they are allocated in the borough. Every street is covered and each house is visited so that those people who now look to the club as a convenient means of disposing of that inevitable collection of bottles and paper will not have them cluttering up their homes over Christmas and the new year holidays. While the drive means a lot of work the club is usually rewarded with a valuable addition to its funds. Each member, be he a coxswain, schoolboy, senior or a. non active old membA; is expected to attend the drive. Last year the club held two drives and each was a success and it expected that Saturday’s effort will exceed all previous ones. It is emphasised that time often calls off the drive before the “borough is fully covered so that bottles and paper left at the front gate will be a great assistance to the collectors.

The bottle drive was inaugurated by the club some years ago and has proved a great success. It is now one way that the club has come to rely on for raising funds. It holds dances and similar functions during the year but the bottle drive has never yet been exceeded. Because of its geographical position the club has to travel long distances to regrattas and these trips, while they are necessary, are very costly. The nearest is to Tauranga. Others the club will be attending this season will probably be at Hamilton, Mercer, Karapiro and Ngaruawahia. All five regattas follow on closely one after the other commencing on January 29 so that it is essential that adequate funds are raised before then. One Of Top Clubs

Whakatane has now come to be regarded as one of the top rowing clubs in the Auckland Province but this position has only been attained by hard work, consistent training and attending regattas. The two former points rely chiefly on the members themselves but the attendance to regattas is affected by the funds available. Given a successful bottle drive on Saturday there should be no' reason why the funds cannot be built up to a stage that will enable the club to attend those essential regattas and also to carry on the • outstanding record that was established last season.