Boys and girls in blue help quake kids

Stoke Kindergarten along with other schools and kindys in the region have rallied to raise money for those in earthquake affected Kaikoura.

Kids at Stoke Kindergarten dressed up in blue to represent the ocean at Kaikoura and raise funds for those affected by the earthquakes.

Parent Phylippa Squires, whose daughter Charlotte is at Stoke Kindergarten, said her family was originally from Kaikoura and she got to thinking about what she could do to help those in need.

‘‘I was talking to lots of mums who were quite stressed, their kids were quite stressed after the earthquake and if it really affected the Nelson kids we were like how is it affecting the Kaikoura kids?’’

Through gold coin donations Stoke Kindergarten had raised $100 which would be distributed by to schools and kindergartens in Kaikoura.

While the concept of an earthquake was a difficult thing to explain to young children, Squires said they talked about how those closer to the earth- quake may have had stuff broken and been scared with the ground moving.

Squires wanted to inspire kids and get them to help the kids in Kaikoura as the affects of the quake would have been 10,000 times worse for them.

Mapua Primary School principal Neil Chalmers sent out an email encouraging schools to get involved with fundraising and Squires said she had ‘‘jumped on the bandwagon’’.

Squires said it was about ‘‘kids helping kids’’ and her goal was to get as many people across the region involved as she could.

‘‘It would be awesome we could get every school, preschool and kindergarten doing it in the top of the south from Murchison to Hira to Collingwood.’’

Squires said Brightwater Kindergarten also held a mufti day.