Touch community champion honoured for their contribution

Jemma Taikato burst out crying when she was surprised with $5000 to spend on her touch community.

“I had no idea that I was nominated at all, no inkling, nothing,” she says.

“I was told we had a [Nelson] Touch meeting at Sport Tasman, so I turned up at the meeting which wasn’t a meeting and there everyone was. That completely blew me away.”

The money, which comes from Bunnings Home Ground Heroes in collaboration with Touch New Zealand, awards five local community organisers around the country with $5000 to reinvest in their local community.

Jemma was one of the lucky recipients from almost 200 nominations who were acknowledged for their integral contribution to the game and who have helped to foster many New Zealanders’ first experiences with community sport.

“Touch is sort of a third or fourth job of mine, but it’s the one that takes most of my time and the one I’m passionate about,” she says.

“Takes up a fair bit of time, but I love it. I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t.”

Alongside managing multiple representative teams across two different national tournaments, Jemma runs three touch tournaments for juniors and is also heavily involved with weekly local touch leagues.

It all started with her sons’ involvement with the game, with all of her boys playing from an early age.

“Being that parent you jump in and you coach or you manage. I just took all their school teams and started helping out when they made the rep levels.

“It’s through a great bunch of volunteers that just give so much, and sometimes it’s for little reward. We love the game, we love the culture that we’re trying to get in Nelson Touch and we’re starting to see them pay off.

“I couldn’t do it without my husband, [Jon Taikato], he sort of gets dragged around town. He’s by my side for all the trips, that person in the background that helps to do the heavy lifting for me.”

Jemma says Nelson Bays Touch has always felt like an underdog that fights to get their voice heard against the big centres, but the willingness for people who have left town to want to come back to play for their region is testament to what they’ve built locally.

She is unsure how the $5000 windfall will be spent, with upcoming meetings now including a section on how they can best utilise the money into the agenda.

“That wish list that you have just sitting there, we can now start ticking some of those boxes.

“Five thousand is a lot for a small organisation. We’ve got so many things that we would want to spend the money on but where would the money would most likely benefit, moving forward.”