Care packages sent south
Hundreds of boxes containing care packages have been put together for Christchurch terror attack victims, families, and first responders.
The ‘‘gestures of love’’ were organised by 500 Friends, an Auckland-based community group that previously sent similar boxes following the Christchurch and Kaiko¯ura earthquakes.
The March 15 attacks at two Christchurch mosques killed 50 people and injured dozens more, leaving the Muslim community reeling.
The boxes are filled with halal items, including non-perishables such as dried fruit and biscuits, prayer mats, photo frames for those who lost a loved one, soft toys, soap, and Kiwiana items to connect the families to the fact they are New Zealanders.
500 Friends founder Penny Hay said the group had to think from a different perspective when putting the care packages together, compared to their efforts after the quakes. The group had gone to a halal shop in Auckland, which had ‘‘opened our community to another community’’ and broken down boundaries.
Boxes were decorated with ‘‘beautiful messages of love and support’’, Hay said.
‘‘It’s such a humbling kind of thing. I think what people feel really connected to is that they can do something with their hands.’’
At the Christchurch end, police Senior Sergeant Roy Appley has been helping to organise the distribution of the boxes, an ongoing process.
Appley said the Muslim community members were ‘‘genuinely grateful for the gifts, commenting on the thoughtfulness put into them, the decoration of the boxes, and the fact they had come from as far away as Auckland and the upper North Island’’.
He said the boxes connected unknown people together in an act of genuine kindness that demonstrated that people from diverse communities could, and do, care about each other.
Appley was also part of 500 Friends efforts after the quakes.
Hay said the key to making 500 Friends work was having faith people genuinely wanted to help. The group relied on the goodwill of many companies in Auckland and Christchurch to make their operation work.