Uniting a community to welcome the world's best rafters has earned the Kawerau District Council a spot in the finals of the inaugural Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) EXCELLENCE Awards.

The awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding leadership role local government plays within communities.

Kawerau's Adopt A Nation rafting project has been named a finalist.

'Local government does a critical but often unsung job in a region, town or city,” says LGNZ President Lawrence Yule.

'These awards give national recognition to the strong impact projects driven by local authorities can have through community, infrastructure and economic development.”

Local authorities were invited to submit in four categories: Fulton Hogan EXCELLENCE Award for Community Impact; MartinJenkins EXCELLENCE Award for Local Economic Contribution; the Beca Infrastructure Project of the Year; and the LGNZ Community Event of the Year.

The Kawerau 'Adopt a Nation” has been announced as one of six finalists in the Fulton Hogan EXCELLENCE Award for Community Impact.

Having part of the 2013 World Rafting Champs held on the Tarawera River's grade 2/3 rapids spurred the Kawerau District Council to come up with a project to unite its community and spur its young residents' interest in white water rafting.

Devised by the Kawerau Youth Council, the 'Kawerau Adopt a Nation” initiative saw the town immerse itself in supporting the sporting event that would attract 70 rafting teams from 30 nations to their town.

As part of its celebration of the championship, in the ten weeks leading up the event each primary school learned all about the visiting countries, then invited the teams to their schools as they arrived to compete.

'Our judges believed this event generated an enormous level of community engagement and positivity that will have lasting effects, which was one of the key objectives for the initiative,” says Lawrence.

The judges in the inaugural Local Government New Zealand EXCELLENCE Awards are: BERL Chief Economist Dr Ganesh Nana, former Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast and the Chair of NZCID John Rae.

The winners will be announced at the annual LGNZ conference in Nelson on July 21.