grandstand and buildings<\/a> are now the central hub for rugby league in Rotorua, and the facility is used by other community organisations.<\/p>\n\u201cI was in my element, and I knew I was good at getting the money to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She recalled the administrative process of applying for funding often put a lot of people off. But not her.<\/p>\n
With perseverance, Rotorua now has league facilities that are the envy of other regions.<\/p>\n
Alongside her every step of the way has been her children – including Paul, who is the current Bay of Plenty District Rugby League vice chairman – and husband, Nick. <\/p>\n
She said her family had also given hours of free labour and volunteer service to the game they love.<\/p>\n
Her service<\/p>\n
![\"]()
Jenny Nahu has been recognised for her services to league in the Bay of Plenty. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Nahu and her family have been involved with rugby league since the 1960s.<\/p>\n
She has held executive roles with the Ngongotah\u0101 Rugby League Club for 55 years and Bay of Plenty District Rugby League for 40 years. <\/p>\n
Despite officially retiring from the Bay of Plenty District Rugby League board this year, she isn\u2019t quite ready to hand over her \u201cbaby\u201d and continues to serve as the Puket\u0101whero Park\u2019s property manager. <\/p>\n
Her New Year\u2019s Honour citation said: \u201cShe has established rugby league as a vehicle for mentorship, youth engagement and community pride, nurturing generations of young people on and off the field, particularly M\u0101ori and Pacific youth.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"]()
Jenny Nahu’s badges. Photo \/ Kelly Makiha<\/p>\n
She is a Life Member of both the Ngongotah\u0101 and Bay of Plenty Rugby League Clubs, has received the New Zealand Rugby League Distinguished Service Award in 2022, the Zonta Award for Contribution to Sport in 2013 and a Sport Bay of Plenty Award in 2010.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a labour of love that\u2019s lasted decades – and if Nahu had her time over again, she wouldn\u2019t change a thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do still enjoy the game, even now I am not involved with any teams.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly Makiha<\/a> is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Her involvement has spanned tournaments, administration support, and event organisation, underpinned by a desire to see rugby league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[10968,64,63,8840,47868,4717,143061,2877,204983,3127,1787,104819,25954,760,85,61716,1547],"class_list":["post-380794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-10968","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-her","tag-honours","tag-in","tag-jenny","tag-league","tag-nahu","tag-new","tag-of","tag-own","tag-rotorua","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-stalwart","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}