Digging deep for community help
Waihi residents are being encouraged to dig deep for those less fortunate as the countdown to Christmas speeds up.
About 55 food hampers and toys would be handed out by the Waihi Salvation Army next week.
Waihi Salvation Army major Murray Sanson says people had been very generous already and had been dropping off gifts.
“The community all in all is very responsive, which is great.”
The gold coin donation collected for the Mike King public meeting had also been donated by OceanaGold to the cause.
“I think that is just fabulous. Having Mike speak up on some of the issues and pressures that affect people come up to Christmas time was also appropriate.”
Some people faced a lot of stress trying to support their family, he says.
Samantha Bakker from the Waihi Leader says the Community Giving Tree went up outside the Memorial Hall on Friday afternoon, thanks to the crew at Alton Drilling.
“Of course this is the centre piece for our upcoming Waihi Community Christmas event incorporating the Waihi Salvation Army Christmas Collection,” she said.
This year the collection was a combined effort with people being asked to start a Reverse advent calendar until December 19 at 5pm at the Memorial Hall.
It has also been great to see other organisations around Waihi and Waihi Beach running their own collections as well, she says.
“Freedom Church Waihi Beach and their dedicated team packed as many as 800 parcels ready for distribution to deserving families.
Waihi Beach Memorial RSA has also built up a collection with some generous donations.”
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