Plunket awards life membership
CHB Plunket recently honoured Railene Mabin with a lifetime membership in recognition of her many decades of fundraising for the charity.
Mrs Mabin received her honour on Sunday, March 19 from Takapau branch past president Judith Finlay at a celebration held at Oruawharo Homestead in Takapau, which was attended by other past and present local branch presidents.
Over the past 25 years, Mrs Mabin has raised more than $250,000 for CHB Plunket, selling flowers during her annual Taniwha Daffodils fundraiser held every spring at her Waipukurau property.
Taniwha Daffodils invites school children, retirement home residents and families to come along and pick bunches of daffodils for a small fee.
But Sally White, Plunket community services co-ordinator for CHB and Tararua, said Mrs Mabin had been fundraising for the organisation since 1970.
“She has been fundraising for more than 40 decades. She’s raised a heck of a lot of money,” Sally said.
After having four children, a “little surprise late baby” in 1970 saw Mrs Mabin joining Plunket at a time when the organisation was seriously lacking in funds, she said.
Keen to raise money for an organisation close to her heart, Mrs Mabin decided to go against the grain and instead of being involved in cake stall fundraisers she decided to sell daffodils which were in abundance outside her front door.
“I sent my 10-year-old son and his 9-year-old sister down to the gate to sell them,” she said. “Before long the cars stopped, the daffodils were sold and we made $40. I had made loads more money at the Plunket meeting than the other mums who had been baking cakes so I thought ‘selling flowers is the way to go’.”