Palmerston North With Love Campaign

The Rotary Club of Palmerston North is sending the people of Canterbury an offer of love in their darkest hour.

Bessy Rasmussen, President of the Rotary Club of Palmerston North says that Local Rotarians have come up with a plan to take some stress out of the lives of the people in the Canterbury region traumatised by the series of recent earthquakes.

“We are putting together a whole series of free packages, including accommodation and activities, so that quite a few families badly affected by quake can get away for a few days and relax,” says Ms Rasmussen.

“One of our Club members, Mayor Jono Naylor, has contacted Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker to convey the offer.”

Mayor Jono Naylor has been really impressed at the support pouring out from throughout the City.

“The idea for this came from Steven Fox from Te Manawa. A project team was quickly established to take the idea forward. The team includes Bessy Rasmussen, Leonie Hapeta, Paddy Clifford, Steve Parsons, Garry Goodman, Adrian Broad, Matthew Jeanes and staff from Destination Manawatu and the iSITE” says Mr Naylor.

“The support from the city has been overwhelming. In the first 24 hours of this campaign more than 20 businesses have offered their kind support with free hotel/motel accommodation and regional activities”.

The Rotary club hopes to run the campaign over the upcoming school holidays, however, finer details are still being worked through.

Rotarian Steve Parsons is hopeful that the club will be able to secure free flights as part of the offer.

“We know that Air NZ has offered 1000 return flights from Christchurch to destinations throughout New Zealand and we hope to secure some of these to bring people to Palmerston North. If we are unable to secure flights, we still want to encourage the people of Canterbury to come to our city and take some respite from the events of recent days,” says Mr Parsons.

The Rotary club of Palmerston North feel that actions speak louder that words and their theme for this year is Actions Count. Rotary will support the campaign in various and collective ways as this is part of their service motto.

The Rotary clubs across New Zealand have a continuing involvement with Shelter Box appeals and disaster relief and in this instance wish for charity begin at home.

ENDS

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