\u201cIt was pretty good to get amongst it that day, it makes you feel a part of the crew.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was also involved with fighting the Waipukurau Hospital Fire on P\u014drangahau Rd in 2010. <\/p>\n
Grayson said the most common callouts were to crashes and grass fires.<\/p>\n
He said the brigade had 17 volunteers, including operational support personnel who helped with traffic control and first aid.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have got a really good brigade in \u014ct\u0101ne now … we get the job done, and we are all there for the community.\u201d <\/p>\n
Part of Grayson\u2019s plans for the new role included encouraging more people to join the service, with what he described as \u201ca good bunch of people\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are doing a big recruitment drive at the moment and throughout the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n
This would include pamphlet drops to local mailboxes and an open day at the fire station. <\/p>\n
He said another way they connected with the community was through social media posts to let people know what they had been called out to.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople like to know what we have been to when they do see the truck go out.\u201d <\/p>\n
The last three callouts involved a medical response, a vegetation fire and an alarm activation. <\/p>\n
Fire and Emergency New Zealand assistant district commander Jason Hill said Grayson was selected through a process that was similar to applying for a job, despite it still being a volunteer role.<\/p>\n
\u201cRob is a genuine, passionate leader who really wants the best for the brigade and the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is well-trained, he has done all the necessary courses to be able to lead the brigade operationally, but he is also not afraid to either ask for help or challenge when required.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a man of few words, but he just gets on and does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill said Grayson had big shoes to fill following Oliver\u2019s choice to step down and take on a role as senior station officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important that those leaders who have got that tacit knowledge let the young ones come through, [and] stay there in the background to be able to be a sounding board. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe talked about retiring, but I said, \u2018Not quite yet, John, if you don\u2019t mind\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill said it was vital that people took on leadership roles within volunteer organisations, and he encouraged others to volunteer. <\/p>\n
Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was pretty good to get amongst it that day, it makes you feel a part of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9526,682,50960,1853,3937,1259,2079,180311,1976,809,7239,10136,117,111,43,139,69,10932,77461,19098,4499,21694,106822,7571,45531],"class_list":{"0":"post-369513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-another","9":"tag-being","10":"tag-brigade","11":"tag-central","12":"tag-chief","13":"tag-community","14":"tag-fire","15":"tag-grayson","16":"tag-hawkes","17":"tag-keep","18":"tag-mission","19":"tag-named","20":"tag-new","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-officer","26":"tag-rob","27":"tag-safe","28":"tag-small","29":"tag-step","30":"tag-tne","31":"tag-volunteer","32":"tag-welcomes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}