Boxing Day: A time to give, not buy
Ben Broadhurst has enough beach towels, books, T-shirts and underpants so he didn’t mind giving away the new ones he got for Christmas.
Ben, 8, and his father John Broadhurst were two of the many people who flipped Boxing Day around and rather than buying lots, they gave things away.
The pair gave a bag full of new Christmas goodies – and festive wrapping paper – to the Taranaki Cathedral for the Give Something Back drive.
The idea of the drive is that people bring in their unwanted or extra Christmas presents, food, or anything else that may be of use to someone, to the cathedral for volunteers to sort and re-gift.
John said there was no need for Ben to have extra if someone else was going to miss out. ‘‘There’s no point this stuff just sitting around, let’s give back.’’
The Broadhursts even provided Christmas wrapping paper so re-homed gifts could be packaged up in a jolly way.
Cath McVey, a family worker at the Taranaki Cathedral, volunteered for the morning in Hatherly Hall yesterday.
She said donations had been steady. ‘‘The boxes are filling,’’ McVey said.
Give Something Back was started around seven years ago by the former dean of the cathedral, Jamie Allen.
McVey said it had been ‘‘hugely successful’’ ever since.
‘‘I came down to deliver something one year and stuff was out the doors.’’
She said the contrast between spending big on Boxing Day and people coming in and giving big was good to see.
‘‘It’s nice for people in the city to see how much generosity there is.’’
There are six organisations that receive goods. They are: Beach St Men’s Shelter, New Plymouth Foodbank, Oranga Tamariki Family Home, Barnardos, Women’s Refuge and Ma¯ ori Women’s Welfare.