18/12/2025
Well deserved ♥️
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RCP 2025 Citizens of the Year – Eddie and Sandra Tofa
Their official titles are ‘Club President/Head Trainer’ for Eddie and ‘Boxing Manager/Association Secretary’ for Sandra for the Rivercity Boxing Club Whanganui. But the titles don’t really reflect the contributions of Eddie and Sandra Tofa, not just to boxing but also to community wellbeing in Whanganui. Together they are the RCP Citizens of the Year for 2025.
They run a wide range of exercise programmes for those with cancer to those with parkinsons, for primary school children to secondary school youth, for ladies only, boxers only, adult fitness as well as hosting regular programmes for Special Olympics Power Lifting, Steady as You Go, Gonville Health, Kaumatua,
physiotherapists, occupational therapists, as well as for wrestling events and for members of Kaierau Rugby players.
Eddie used to run all the classes, but now has others to help, including four qualified boxing coaches, with Fluer Storr and Emma Perry doing the ladies-only sessions.
They run on a high trust model with others holding keys, including rugby players who have been known to come as early as 4am to do training.
The emphasis of many of the boxing programmes, especially the youth ones, is fitness, resilience and self-defence, and the rules are strict. There is no swearing in the gym, no sparring without a coach, all boxers must have mouthguards and headgear on, and if anyone is caught fighting outside, they are stood down.
It started over 20 years ago when their son Viki got into boxing, and Eddie took up the role of coach, gaining his level 2 qualifications, necessary to compete up to a national level. Viki ended up becoming a three-time New Zealand champion.
However, 11 years ago, the Club was about to close down, and the manager approached Eddie to take it over. He accepted, and soon after, Sandra took on the voluntary role of manager.
Sandra explains, “The club was down to about 10 kids but within a month it was over 50.” They introduced fitness classes led by Eddie as a way to bring in money. They became popular with multiple daily sessions including at night. But they still had to run sausage sizzles and hāngi sales most weekends to bring in enough money to keep running.
The gym was “tiny” says Eddie. “We could fit in only 20 people at a time.” Being devout Christians, the two of them prayed for two years, with a vision of a new gym.
Then it happened. “Mick Paul from Totalspan came into the gym without knowing why,” says Eddie. “I said to him – I want you to build me a new gym. Mick laughed as he knew we had no money, but he returned in three weeks and promised to do it.”
Kaierau Rugby Club was looking to have a community gym/training complex, and following discussions they decided to apply for grants. “We found out that the CEO of the NZ Community Trust was a Whanganui man, and that could have helped because we were given $150,000 for the building materials and another $45,000 for the equipment.” Mike from Totalspan did the building work for free, and sponsors covered the cost of the surrounding concrete work. The gym opened on 14 May 2016.
One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is the pressure to raise funds. As Sandra says, “The fees don’t cover the rent. We do keep them low.” The Youth Programme of 10 weeks, twice a week terms, costs only $40 and Sandra points out that, “In term one we get 95% payment, but that goes down to about just over 50% by term 4, but we don’t want to exclude people from the benefits of the programmes.”
Applying for grants is a regular requirement, and currently they have applied for one to cover 12 hours a week wages for Eddie, who has, along with Sandra been working as a volunteer for the past few years. They have received a grant from Lotteries to cover 35 weeks of rent, but other payments such as insurances, running the club van and certificates for their coaches still need to be funded.
They hold annual corporate boxing events to raise funds, but otherwise it is back to raffles and hāngi sales. The Whanganui Hospital covers the cost of the Parkinson and Kaumatua programmes.
Eddie and Sandra are committed to the boxing and exercise gym and have positively impacted the health and wellbeing of many people in Whanganui. They are deserving RCP 2025 Citizens of the Year.
