T-Shirt Celebrates 10 Years of Hospice Partnership

Kiwi Travel Company Creates T-Shirt to Celebrate 10 Years of Hospice Partnership

A special commemorative t-shirt has been designed and will be worn by travel agents at a Kiwi travel company to celebrate a 10-year partnership with Hospice New Zealand.

House of Travel began supporting Hospice New Zealand in 2005, with each of its 70+ outlets ‘adopting’ their local hospice to help out with fundraising, volunteering and donations.

To coincide with Hospice Awareness Week (18-24 May), and mark the special milestone, House of Travel has created a unique t-shirt to acknowledge its relationship with the organisation.

Every employee will be gifted a t-shirt, which features a stylised Hospice logo, and will be encouraged to wear the t-shirts on Fridays to help raise awareness of Hospice and the work it does in local communities.

“We are all very proud of our longstanding partnership with Hospice New Zealand which has enabled House of Travel teams to support Hospice patients and families with funds for care and donations for fundraising activities to make a real difference in people’s lives,” says House of Travel CEO Mark O’Donnell.

The company holds regular office morning tea and bake-offs with gold coin donations to raise money, while regional outlets get involved in a variety of ways. In Southland, House of Travel Lakers Invercargill provides the necessities for a weekly drinks trolley for patients and families.
Meanwhile, House of Travel Orewa owner-operator Dennis Payne has run ‘armchair traveller’ sessions for patients who are unable to travel, but want to see other parts of the world.

“The work Hospice does to provide people with life limiting illnesses with physical and emotional care at the end of their life in many cases, and the support they give to those people’s families too, is close to all of our hearts,” says O’Donnell.

As part of their partnership, Hospice New Zealand present a House of Travel outlet with a special Embrace Award annually to recognise an outlet that has integrated its local hospice into every aspect of its business.

In 2013 alone, Hospice New Zealand provided care and support to 15,500 people living with a life-limiting condition.

The organisation estimated it would cost them around $99 million to provide the free service to Kiwis in 2014, with around $42 million of that total needing to come from fundraising efforts of companies like House of Travel.
Each t-shirt carries the message of ‘Living every moment’, reflecting the goal of hospice is to support people with a life limiting illness to live every moment in whatever way is important to them, their family, and whanau.

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