Good Sorts - Cat Gurnett

For Waimate volunteer Catherine (Cat) Gurnett (52), supporting others struggling with Mental Health is the driving force behind why she volunteers, as she wishes people to know within the community that there is support out there and all they need to do is reach out.

Cat was born in 1972, at the Waimate Hospital and attended St Patrick’s in Waimate, followed by Roncalli College in Timaru. She said as a child she remembers learning about volunteering through her mother, Girl Guides and being an altar girl at Waimate St Patrick's Cathedral.

“Mum really was the first person to teach me about volunteering. When I was little [she] would take me out down Waimate streets, going to people’s doors, collecting for the Blind Foundation” she said.

After leaving school Cat did a training course in Waimate that helped young adults enter into employment. Around the time she remembers being one of the original volunteers at the March Hare Rally making Hangi parcels for everyone attending. Even though she was a volunteer, she didn’t really see it as volunteering, as she enjoyed doing it because it was a fun and a social thing to be involved in.

Once Cat completed her training course, she became a nanny for a family in Waimate for 4 -5 years, followed by a period of time moving around New Zealand. Then after being a nanny in Dunedin she moved back to Waimate and her first daughter was born not long after.

It is at this time, her volunteer journey really began in the Waimate community and she became involved in Waimate Cub Scouts for four years.

Cat then lived between Waimate and Dunedin for a number of years, until she had her second daughter and decided to move back to Waimate, where she has resided ever since. She said while her daughters were children she would volunteer in areas to do with them, like Plunket when her first daughter was born, Music and Movement and events that they were involved in. “I would help out at things like teddy bear’s picnics, where there were free activities for the kids…bouncy castles to play on and police cars and fire engines they could go for rides in,” she said.

When Cat moved back to Waimate, she became involved in the Waimate Connect Church (Connect), which she had attended as a teenager and young adult, when it was the Assembly Of God (AOG). Through Connect she became involved in volunteering with their church services on a Sunday and the same at Lister Home on a Tuesday.

She has also been a Girls Brigade leader, a helper at Elder Care, and now helps out at Revive; a free meal provided for the community at Connect Church on a Monday night, where a donation is always welcome.

It was around the time Cat moved back to Waimate that her passion for Mental Health started, due to her own struggles with it. She said at the time she was going through her own Mental Health journey, as she had an alcohol addiction and was also diagnosed with bi-polar. “It was about 15 years ago that I realised I knew I wanted to help others with their Mental Health, as I was dealing with my own at the time, and knew how much of a struggle it was to live with,” she said.

Once Cat started learning to deal with her own Mental Health, she was able to start helping others by supporting them through their own journey. She said she became like a support person/mentor to some people, and would go with them to their Mental Health appointments, as she knew it wasn’t always an easy thing to do, because of the stigma around it. “I have also encouraged and supported people get through their own alcohol addiction, as I have done myself,”

Cat became interested in participating in Gumboot Friday and fundraising for the organisation, so in 2022 she completed her first Gumboot Friday fundraiser. She said she was able to walk the length of the pool at the Waimate Norman Kirk Swimming Centre, 32 times. “The challenge of wearing gumboots through the water for me, represented the challenge children and young adults face daily with Mental Health. “I also did it in support of those that have lost their battle with Mental Health,” she said.

In 2023, Cat did the same fundraiser but this time completed 52 lengths of the pool. However, in 2024 she was unfortunately unable to walk the pool, as she developed Guilliane-Barre Syndrome (GBS), but she still managed to raise funds through a raffle and collection outside Waimate New World.

Cat has also helped to hold an event at the Tin Shed in Waimate to raise funds for the organisation and encouraged another Waimate woman to do her own fundraiser for them, where she walked to the Waimate White Horse Monument.

Some of the big highlights of her involvement with them. are when she was able to help bring Ritchie Barnett to the Waimate Rugby Club rooms to speak to Waimate’s youth and then having the chance to meet Mike King.

Cat said she has also been able to reach out and help others in the local community and even wider, with Mental Health through Facebook. She said she saw a video 4-5 years ago on Facebook of someone sharing their Mental Health journey and hoped that telling her own story this way would be a great way of reaching out to others. “I wanted to tell others that they aren’t alone, if they needed support they could reach out and that there are also services that they can reach out to, as well.”

Cat said the people in Waimate are what she loves the most about the community, as they are so supportive and it makes her want to do the same for others. She said she enjoys volunteering because helping others is something she is passionate about, and it has helped her with her own struggles. “There’s just something in me that wants to do it,

“I also like seeing when others overcome their own problems and succeed in life,” she said.

If you would like to contact Cat, about anything she is currently involved in, you can reach her on her Facebook.

By Amelia King.