People

Lesley leads on

Former deputy mayor makes most of Kiwanis, city connections

When Christchurch, New Zealand Mayor Garry Moore asked Lesley Keast to serve as his deputy mayor, she was, in her own words, “dumbfounded.”

“I said to him, ‘I can’t be deputy mayor,’” she recalls. “‘I don’t have any money.’ He laughed and said, ‘Neither do I!’”

Lesley Keast

Lesley chairs a board meeting for the Southern Centre, home to the Kiwanis-sponsored multi-sensory room.

Lesley, who is a member of the Kiwanis Club of North West, Christchurch, went on to serve two terms as Moore’s “right-hand lady,” from 1999-2005.

Lesley is a force of determination and goodwill. She raised two sons as a single mother, and in both her personal and professional life, she long has championed family and women’s causes. In fact, she began her political career by winning a council election after taking up the issue of a bus route that did not extend to a much-needed shopping area.

Christchurch is one of New Zealand’s major cities, boasting a population of almost 350,000. As deputy mayor, she was given responsibility for City Hall’s international portfolio of guests. Prior to her appointment, Lesley had traveled to Asia and understood different cultural needs. It was an exciting duty that had her meeting and greeting dignitaries from around the world.

“I met some wonderful international people,” she notes.

Among her favorite international dignitaries were two fellow Kiwanians: Past Kiwanis International Presidents Walter Sellers and Nettles Brown.

Indeed, Lesley’s roles as a Kiwanian and deputy mayor again meshed—and proved to be a vital partnership—when she began amassing support to create a special multisensory recreational unit in the city’s Southern Centre (a large-scale sports and recreational facility). The room—currently the only one of its kind in the world—is fully inclusive to all ages and accommodates every disability, inviting users to experience a pleasant recreational environment through interactive lights, sound, touch, and other sense elements specific to individual needs.

The unit became near and dear to Lesley’s heart as she brought friends and fellow Kiwanians on board with the idea, seeking funding to bring the room to fruition.

“I went to ‘sell’ the idea of the unit to other Kiwanians to see if they’d help me fundraise to get the vision off the ground,” she says. “I saw the multisensory unit fitting so well with Kiwanis’ mission to serve the children of the world.”

Visits to the unit still invoke Lesley’s emotions, and she continues to serve on the Southern Centre’s Charitable Trust as its chairwoman. Heavily supported by Division 11 New Zealand clubs, the multisensory unit was awarded the World Leisure Innovation Award by the World Leisure Organization.

In 2005, Lesley stepped out of  “public” life, but she continues to help others—especially women and families—walk through the doors that opened to her as Christchurch’s deputy mayor, including staging weekly forums for different women’s organizations, acting for the eradication of age discrimination, and her work with the Southern Centre.

“She never stops,” says Kiwanian Rhondda Boxall.

“I’m ‘re-firing,’ not retiring,” Lesley affirms.

And, of course, added to her busy ‘to-do’ list is her passion for Kiwanis.

“I really love Kiwanis,” she says. “It’s a great, wonderful organization—and long may it reign.”