Christmas foodbank appeal amighty challenge for a great cause
I recently satdownwith a close friend and discussedhowto live a morefulfilling life.
The daily grindwasgetting monotonous and she askedmeto really think about whatmypurpose is and whatmyvalues are.
Onething I kept coming back to wasdoing things that are worthwhile — having a positive effecton the people aroundmeand in the community.
That is one ofmanyreasons I’m over themoonto be leading the coverage of our Rotorua Daily Post Christmas Appeal for the Salvation Armyfoodbank.
Weare all taught the importance of giving from a young age and Idon’t think there is a betterwaytodo so than to help the Rotorua Salvation Armygive out 200food parcels to families in need this Christmas.
During the first three weeks of the appeal, Ihave watched people and organisations from all over Rotorua get behind the cause in a range of creative ways.
So I thought, “Whatmorecould I do?”.
As part of the appeal, my workmate Zizi Sparks and I roped in ourgymwha¯nau at Crossfit Rotorua to get behind the cause. As I expected, they were full of enthusiasm to dig deep.
Throughout the week, members whowere able to brought in nonperishable items to donate to the cause. Onsaturdaywegot together for one of the toughest workouts I’ve ever done, The 24 Days of Christmas.
Acommoncrossfit workout in December is 12 Days of Christmas. First, youpick 12movements(squats, push-ups, box jumps etc). Thenyou
do one repetition of the first movement. Then two of the second movementand back to one of the first. Then3, 2, 1— 4,3,2,1 and so on, all thewayup to 12.
Wedid that but with 24 movements, if you did the whole thing youwould complete a total of 2600repetitions.
Somedid theworkout solo, some in pairs, but it proved too ambitious. Wehad a two-hour time cap and nobodymanagedto finish, but in the endwehad sweated it out together for a great cause.
Most importantly, wehad collected a good haul of nonperishable food to donate to the appeal.
This yearwehave collectively battled ourway through lockdowns in an attempt to fight off a global pandemic. Manywhothought they would never be in such a position have found themselves needing a helping hand.
There truly is no greater gift than giving and I encourage anyonewho is able to donate to do so. You’ll be amazedbyhowfulfilling it is.