25 February 2019

Thank you for supporting our Christmas appeal

Support for our Christmas Appeal last December came from so many people – individuals and families, schools and kindergartens, and businesses.

We received generous donations in so many different ways – Movies for Teens, Stock the Bus, school mufti days, individuals donating money and goods as they walked past our food bank and in many other ways.

Movies for Teens was a really successful campaign and raised $3,200 from donations. This means 320 teenagers have received the opportunity to go to the movies this summer. A big thanks to Rialto Cinemas for teaming up with us on that campaign. We were thrilled to double last year’s achievement of raising $1,660.

Stock the Bus was once again a hit. We had nine stops across Dunedin in just six hours. This included three businesses and six schools/kindergartens. We received 1,663 food donations, 2,094 gifts and eight voucher donations. This meant a total of 3,765 items - well ahead of the 3,060 items donated in 2017. We have a number of schools and businesses already eager to participate in 2019!

Five businesses in Dunedin took part in our Corporate Angels initiative in 2018. The 17 families who received personalized gifts from them were overwhelmed.

Donations of food, gifts, and decorations were used to help families enjoy Christmas Day and the holidays, while money and vouchers means families can continue to be supported once the holidays are over, and the joy of Christmas can be experienced all year long.

Whether you gave money, vouchers, your time, food, or gifts, thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and from the people you were able to support.

“Everything was perfect. The books are especially amazing. Words don’t really express the extent of our overwhelming gratitude.”