Student ready to answer the call
Tairua teen already seasoned volunteer firefighter High note for music teacher
Billy Turner Emergency Services category When the fire siren wails out across town, even school does not get in the way of 16-yearold Tairua youth Billy Turner’s determination to come to the rescue of others.
As a volunteer with both the Tairua and Whangamata fire brigades, Billy always puts himself at the service of those in need, an attitude that has been rewarded with a nomination in the Emergency Services category of the Pride of New Zealand Awards.
At just 16, the Whangamata Area School student has already attended more fire callouts than many of his fellow volunteer firefighters. He got his first taste of the Fire Service at age 6 when Tairua volunteer fireman Brian Hart put a uniform and a helmet on the youngster and gave him a ride in the fire truck.
He volunteered as a St John cadet and spent another two years riding with the fire crew in Hamilton where he was attending Hamilton Boys’ High School, until being allowed to volunteer at the age of 16.
On returning to Tairua, he set his sights on joining the brigade as soon as possible, Gavin Herdman Community Spirit Gavin Herdman believes everyone can learn to play a musical instrument and he has helped many people find their perfect pitch.
“It doesn’t matter what a person’s age or background is — nobody is ‘ tone deaf’ and everyone has the ability to be musical.
“My oldest student was 86 when he picked up his first instrument and my youngest student was 6.”
Mr Herdman’s commitment to music in Wanganui has earned him a nomination for a Pride of New Zealand Community Spirit award.
‘‘I am pleased to be nominated — they [the awards] sound like a good idea,” he said.
A tuba player with Wanganui Brass, Mr Herdman is also completing his medical tests in the weeks before his birthday.
Now Billy is right beside his fellow volunteers whenever there is a callout — even during school hours.
“If the siren calls, I run out to the side of the road with my bag . . . and if someone is driving past I’ll wave them down and ask them to drive me to the station,” says Billy.
“The local community are really grateful. They’re more than happy to drive me. I have a good chat to them on the way and I tell them ‘just stick to the speed limit’, I don’t want anyone getting hurt.
“My teachers all know that if the siren goes I’m going to stand up and run out.”
Billy has to make sacrifices to volunteer, such as letting the station know if he’s away from town and being available to help whatever the time of day or night.
Fire Chief Chris New says Billy attends everything from fatal car accidents to installing fire alarms into homes on his weekends and after school, the conductor for Concert Brass and plays with the Jazz Club Brass Band and Damn Raucous Brass.
“My biggest thrill in life is and never down.
“At an emergency we don’t look around to see who it is, we just look around for a hat, and the stripes on the hat tell you how senior they are. Billy is waiting for his qualified firefighter ranking to give him a red stripe, and he’s working towards that now,” Mr New says.
“He never knocks back a job; we had a fatal accident out of town not long ago and Billy was right in there with us and it didn’t faze him.”
It’s not any sense of glory that motivates Billy, but being on a career path that he hopes will end with a job in Auckland as a paid firefighter.
“I like helping people. It’s the personal satisfaction that you get after a job,” he says.
Billy approached fellow volunteer and mentor Mike King about a campaign he’d seen in Hamilton to install fire alarms in the homes of the elderly. With Mike’s support and training, the pair began installing alarms throughout Tairua.
“It was supposed to be for the elderly, but as we worked through the community we do it for everyone now.’’
Billy is also one of 60 nominated for a Coromandel Peninsula Youth Award.
turns anything watching other people learn to play and I started teaching when I was 17.
“My first instrument was a B flat baritone that I got when I was 9 — I always loved brass but I learned to play reed instruments because there was a shortage of brass instruments at the high school when I started teaching there.”
Besides his Wanganui Brass commitments, Mr Herdman teaches recorder, reed and brass at Wanganui High School, works as a caregiver to people with disabilities and provides out-of-school music lessons for just $5 per hour.
Born and bred in Wanganui, Mr Herdman said his family had been playing with Wanganui Brass for more than 100 years.