Old uniforms to warm up the community
Aviation staff know the value of a decent woollen jersey in a howling southerly, so when the Aviation Security Service (Avsec) uniform was up for a refresh, donating their old jerseys and vests to charity made perfect sense to staff.
Avsec group operations manager Karen Urwin signed on with Wellington’s Kiwi Community Assistance (KCA), an organisation that redistributes food and goods to other charities such as Plunket, the Salvation Army and night shelters.
With new polo shirts and jackets coming for staff, their old woollen jerseys and vests wouldn’t be used as much and would probably be sitting at the bottom of a drawer somewhere, she said.
‘‘It was an absolute travesty if they didn’t go to a good place. We thought there’s plenty of people in New Zealand that need something warm.’’
KCA co-founder Tracey Wellington said over the winter months they had seen an increase in requests for warmer clothing.
‘‘The woollen items from Avsec will fly out of our warehouse as soon as they come in,’’ Wellington said.
Avsec partnered with the Department of Corrections, where people serving sentences of community work helped to unpick the jerseys of any Avsec badges.
‘‘It was great to be able to work with them and it makes a huge difference,’’ Urwin said.
With about 1000 staff across Avsec, Urwin was anticipating many more warm items of clothing to come through and said there were already ‘‘mountains’’ of them piling up.
‘‘Staff were really supportive because firstly, [the jerseys] were sitting around in their bottom drawers taking up space. They were excited to make a difference for the people that need help in the community.’’
So far, more than 200 pieces of clothing had been donated to KCA.
Urwin encouraged other businesses to take a look at doing something similar, saying there must be lots of other organisations able to donate old uniforms.
She said working with KCA took out any problems around deciding where to send the jerseys. Partnering with the Department of Corrections was a great way to make the clothing suitable for redistribution.
‘‘Whenever there’s an opportunity to make this type of donation, why wouldn’t you?’’