Sporting clubs thrive on volunteers to keep running. Nichols Point Cricket Club is one of many in Sunraysia that rely on unpaid man hours to keep running. Travers Zanker is one of those who just keep giving their time and energy. Already awarded Cricket Victoria’s Volunteer Of The Year, Travers is now in the running for a Cricket Australia volunteer award. Travers sat down with Angus Dearlove to talk about why he loves volunteering. Picture: Louise Barker
A WILL to put Nichols Point on the Sunraysia sporting map is what drives Travers Zanker.
A teacher at the Nichols Point Primary School, Travers and colleague Dan Holy have put lots of work into building particularly the cricket club and also the soccer club out of Nichols Point Reserve, their way of giving back to the community.
“Between Dan and myself we’ve had a passion to help strengthen the sporting community at Nichols Point through the cricket club and the soccer club,” Travers says.
“I believe the work we’ve been doing, and with the other stakeholders, has helped put Nichols Point on the sporting map in Sunraysia.
“The soccer club is only getting bigger and stronger, so is the cricket club.”
Travers wants to see the Nichols Point community have something to be proud of.
“To get some sporting clubs they can follow and be proud to follow, that’s always been Dan’s and my goal,” he says.
“That comes down to the great support those clubs get through Jamie Milton as president of the cricket club and Roxanne Jones as president of the soccer club.
“They are the ones that are helping to drive these community clubs and they do have great support on their committees.
“All I’d hope is people reading this in the NP area come down and see if they can put their hand up to see if they can help either the cricket club or the soccer club.”
Travers will head down to Melbourne next weekend to attend the Cricket Australia Commonwealth Bank Sports For All Awards.
As the winner of the Cricket Victoria Volunteer Of The Year he is now in the running for the national equivalent.
“It’s obviously a great honour to be nominated in the first place for the state award but then to be recognised at the Australian awards I’m a bit speechless when people ask me how I feel about it,” Travers says. “It’s just a fantastic honour.
“On a personal level it’s a great reward for the time and effort I put in at the club, I feel it’s a great recognition for the work I’ve done.”
He compared the personal satisfaction with awards to the satisfaction of seeing the fruits of his labor come to pass.
“Comparing it to the club the great thing is the work I do at the club I see the small wins we get along the way,” Travers says.
“I see all the things we do as a club and we are able to celebrate the small things our volunteers do — whether that’s a simple thank you or acknowledgement on our social media, or even an email to them saying thank you.
“That probably has an overall bigger satisfaction that what we are doing is making a difference to our club.”
He encouraged anyone thinking of volunteering not to be daunted by the task.
“The biggest thing if you are thinking about volunteering is have an idea in mind of how you would like to help the club,” he says.
“Don’t go in thinking you are going to have to do five, 10 or 15 hours every week, tell the club you’ve got an hour a week that you’d like to volunteer and if you’ve got a passion for an area that helps.
“A lot of people think it’s a very daunting job, that it’s overly time consuming, as a volunteer you can actually dictate how many hours you do at the club and what you want to do so you are working in a passionate area you want to be in.”
