Some of the Cambridge Jewellers team with a few of the donations. They are, from left, Anna Gerring, Stacey Murray and Laura Cannon.
Cambridge lost no time in reaching out to help those most affected by last week’s Cyclone Gabrielle.
Individuals, businesses and other groups and organisations moved swiftly to gather and send out items needed urgently for those in the most severely affected areas. Many here were spurred into action after seeing images of the devastated Hawke’s Bay area. They reached out to social media to launch initiatives which will stay in place for several months.
Among the first to move was a Cambridge Jewellers team. Anna Gerring shared her desire to do something on social media and by 11am she had been contacted by Mainfright to say they had a truck going down and could transport donations being dropped off at the jeweller’s shop.
“People are so generous. It’s all stuff that will be used immediately – toiletries, tinned food, pet food, baby formula, sanitary products and the like,” said Anna. “When the truck arrived down there on Saturday, there were people in the streets applauding.”
Anna and her colleagues – Vicky Vickers, Stacey Murray, Laura Cannon – put the call out for boxes and on Sunday were joined by Anna’s fiancé Murray Yeates and Cambridge Chamber chief Kelly Bouzaid for a busy packing session before the goods were transported. That initial truckload went on Saturday and another large trailer-load was taken on Sunday headed to Wairoa.
C & R Developments managing director Mike Ross with a few early Monday morning items dropped off for the relief effort.
Friday also saw Mike Ross, managing director at C & R Developments, put out a call for warehouse space to accommodate donations that gathered quickly at their Hautapu premises once they put the word out.
The company is run by the Ross brothers, who have historic connections to Hastings and were keen to assist where they could across the Hawke’s Bay area. Their great-grandfather Francis Hicks was one of the founding settlers of Hastings.
“I was awake around 2am on Friday and thought I’d like to do something,” Mike said on Monday morning. “We had a spare truck available and were ready to go. There was a great response to our weekend call for warehousing, and we’ve now probably got enough donations to easily fill two trucks.”
Goods were still coming in, and he expects the initiative will continue for some time.
The generosity of local communities is being welcomed by Civil Emergency and Red Cross teams who are collaborating nationwide to support the relief effort, but they are urging donors to familiarise themselves with what is needed.
Wayne Allan, Western Waikato local civil defence controller, said monetary donations were the single, most helpful things Kiwis can do right now.
