Auckland community helps MOTAT raise record amount for charity

Now in their ninth consecutive year, MOTAT’s ‘Give and you shall receive’ charity campaign and ‘MOTAT Nights, Christmas Lights’ event series are proving more popular than ever. More than 20,000 people attended Christmas Lights events and this, combined with the ‘Give and you Shall Receive’ campaign, enabled the Museum to purchase more than 6,500 gifts for children in need.

“These activities help MOTAT fulfil its role as a good community citizen,” said MOTAT CEO Michael Frawley. “Christmas should be a time to help those in need and the response from our visitors shows that this spirit is well and truly alive in Auckland.”

The ‘Give and you shall receive’ campaign resulted in admission fees for December being used to buy presents for children in need while ‘MOTAT Nights, Christmas Lights’ saw visitors enjoy an array of twilight Christmas themed activities in exchange for a $2 charitable donation.

“The gifts enabled us to support our charitable partners, The Auckland City Mission and Variety – The Children’s Charity,” said Mr Frawley. “Trillion Trust also got involved by generously funding the installation of additional Christmas lighting so we could further improve the event experience.”

The total value of the gifts was more than $76,000, exceeding last year’s amount by almost $4,000 and setting a new record for MOTAT charitable campaigns.

The Auckland City Mission distributed some of the gifts to families that attended its annual Christmas dinner event while Variety delivered gifts to low decile schools including Henderson South School and Owairaka District School.

MOTAT also hosted a group of children from Stand Children’s Services prior to Christmas. At this event, children were given gifts from a number of Variety ambassadors including Shane Cortese and Simon Dallow.

Mr Frawley said it was satisfying to see that numbers were increasing as a result of the Musuem’s new strategy which was launched in July 2014.

“This is great news because the more people we get through the gates over the Christmas period, the more gifts we can give to charity. I’m hoping that we can break the record again next year.”

It is estimated that 1 in 4 New Zealand children live in poverty and Lorraine Taylor of Variety – The Children’s Charity says that most of these kids would not receive a real Christmas if it was not for these types of appeals.

“It makes a real difference,” says Ms Taylor.

ENDS

Notes to the editor:

• ‘Give and You Shall Receive’ completed its 9th year and saw visitor admission fees go to charity between 1-24 December.

• ‘MOTAT Nights, Christmas Lights’ event series ran between 12-14 and 19-24 December and required a $2 charitable donation.

• 6588 gifts were given to Auckaldn City Mission and Variety – The Children’s Charity

• Total Retail value of gifts in 2014 was $76,000

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